


Little Obsessions and Absolute Annihilation

by TwilightRealmWolf



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Drama, Eventual MichaelxReader, F/M, Fluff, Reader-Insert, Slight RayxReader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-09
Updated: 2014-07-17
Packaged: 2018-01-18 18:58:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 49,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1439263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwilightRealmWolf/pseuds/TwilightRealmWolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All your life all you'd wanted to be was accepted. Though, that was something that you'd never had. Your life was simple, a freelance artist who stayed holed up in her apartment all the time, anti-social and untrusting of anyone. Your only escape was the six men from Achievement Hunter. Maybe they would be the ones to satisfy your life long wish?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dribbles of Introductions

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this was supposed to be a small little one-shot, but no. I kinda took the prompt and ran a little too far with it, so now it's a chapter fic lads and gents. Oops. This is what I get for having free time during class. I usually write a lot on this work so updates SHOULD be often, unless something comes up. It's not horrendously long or anything. Hopefully not anyway.
> 
> Find me on tumblr under the same name!

Prompt: "Can I get a Michael x Reader where the reader goes to the company and manages to get an unpaid (or paid) internship, and sees Michael playing a game in the office and decides to ask to play with him, and things just start from there?"

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It all started with that one night on sixth street.

Yeah, that statement is pretty broad and could mean a very wide variety of things, but I assure you, its probably not what you're thinking.

It was a Wednesday night, nothing out of the ordinary such as a holiday or anything, it was just a basic night. You'd spent the majority of the day scribbling away on your Bamboo tablet working on a new art commission and hadn't moved from your desk all day. Sure, you went to the bathroom once or twice, but it was only a few steps away from your desk because your apartment was so small, and you kept a wide variety of snacks right next to your desk. Naturally, eventually you began to go stir crazy and just needed to get out. Sure, going out alone wasn't your ideal night out, but there was no one else available. Most of your friends were busy studying for tests or just had class over at UT. Or they went home with their family. That was a thing that you often forgot that people did.

A few years ago, in your senior year of high school, on the last day, you'd finally decided on what you wanted to do as your profession for the rest of your days on this planet. Although, when you'd gone home that night, your parents were less than pleased at your..."mediocre" choice, as they had put it. You knew that they only wanted you to be happy and to lead a successful life, but they had always believed that art wasn't a viable route to travel down. So, naturally, when you'd come home holding the torn up applications to colleges such as Duke or Yale, or even UT and A&M, they had gotten very angry and had even pulled out the "You won't be staying here if you make this awfully dreadful decision, young lady," card.

Though, you hadn't cared. What was your response? Gathering you stuff and piling as much of the necessary items you could fit into your tiny suitcase, you hauled it down the stairs and shoved it into the back of your tiny blue Volkswagen and drove off, not even as much as a goodbye as you drove away from the house you'd lived in all your life. Yeah, you loved your parents, more than anything, but you just couldn't handle yet another person lecturing you on making poor life choices, or not being able to do something right. You had gotten that every day of your life starting in the 5th grade. You just needed to be free. So, you drove into downtown Austin, tears dotting your eyelashes and gently falling down your cheeks. When you reached the area of the UT campus, you had found the most reasonably priced hotel there was, or at least the most reasonably priced place that didn't look like you might get robbed if you stayed in one spot for more than 30 seconds.

Pulling into the parking lot of the Red Roof Inn, you had rented a room and threw your stuff down on the bed, and pulled your laptop out. As you watched it boot up, you sat there on the bed, head in your hands, stuck in deep thought, every thought regarding what had happened earlier. Then, it hit you like a ton of bricks. You were on your own now. You'd be on your own for the rest of your life. Surely your parents would never let you back under their roof now, after your less than respectful exit. It was very clear that they were greatly displeased, both with you and your actions. So, as your computer fully booted up, you opened the browser and started the apartment search. After a few hours, you'd finally found a decent one on the north side of downtown, a little quieter than the main downtown, but still decently involved in the hussle bussle, walking distance to a lot of key things. With one email to the HOA of the complex, your new post-high school life had began.

Now, as you were sat on a bar stool in the far corner of the bar, nursing a draft beer and a cup of ice water, occasionally snacking on some of the fries that were in the basket in front of you, you were more self-sufficient and generally successful than you 3 months ago when you'd first left your parents and your old life behind. You made just enough money off of art commissions to manage your rent as well as a decent amount of profit for a little bit of fun money, which you used for nights like this. Since you normally ate at home, saving way more money than you would've ever thought it could, you could go out wherever you wanted whenever you decided to go out for a little. To say the least, you definitely weren't hurting in terms of money. Granted, you weren't making as much money as you could be with a degree, but who cares. You were doing what you love and that's all you cared about.

Though, that wasn't all you were known for. Sure, you were the girl on tumblr with an art style that was "amazing", according to all of your followers, but you also did a little bit of gaming on the side. You run a small youtube channel where you occasionally record some gaming when you don't have anything else to be working on, which was rare, so you didn't have a committed uploading schedule. Though, that didn't seem to bother anyone that watched your content. They still loved every minute of anything you uploaded, always commenting about how they enjoyed your genuine personality, and how you never cared to stage anything.

You were also known for your shockingly large gamerscore on Xbox. With an astounding 390,650 gamerscore to your gamertag, people were always asking for you to do achievement guides, but whenever they asked for one, you would just refer them to Rooster Teeth's content company Achievement Hunter. You always told them that they had a fantastic guy who did achievement guides constantly, and he even had a higher gamerscore than yourself. That seemed to do the trick, because people would even refer you to an achievement guide from him whenever you were stuck on something in a video you'd uploaded. Though, you'd already seen all of their videos, achievement guides or not.

It was no secret that you loved the company Achievement Hunter. You owned a large amount of the merch in the store, using some of your leisure money to purchase new shirts that caught your eye. Every day, no matter how busy you were, you would always take some time out to watch their daily upload, no matter how long it may be. They always made you feel better, even when you were sick. Back when you had still lived with your parents, you had made plans to go to RTX, but you had to cancel, not having enough money at the time to afford to buy food or anything if you went. So, you gave the tickets to a friend and just watched the panels at home on youtube a month later. You were definitely going next year, no doubt about that. You loved their content so much, and you would give anything to get to see them in person.

So, that's why when you looked up at the creaking opening door to the bar, you spit out all of your beer that you currently had in your mouth. Glancing down at the drips of beer on your shirt then back up at the door, you saw none other than Geoff Ramsey and Gavin Free sauntering into the bar. Though, you freaked out even more when you locked eyes with Geoff and he began to walk in your direction. Surely you shouldn't bother him right? In response to your own thoughts, you jerked your head down, avoiding any gaze with either of the men. Though, to your own (sweet) demise, Geoff decided to pick the bar stool to your immediate right, which made it all the more difficult to ignore the man.

You just sat there for a moment, seemingly only staring down at your crotch for no apparent reason. Then your mind went on hyper drive.

Don't just sit there like an idiot, you idiot! At least do something!

In response to your frantic thoughts, which sent blood rushing to your cheeks, turning them a bright red in a matter of seconds, you dug into your front pockets, then your back pockets in search of your phone. Though, you just became even more frantic when you couldn't find the tiny device anywhere. Hell, you even checked down your shirt, which you did not so subtly. You heard a chuckle next to you, and that sent even more anxiety to your brain. You felt like you were about to explode with anxiety, until you felt three taps on your right shoulder. Glancing over to your right, wide eyed and panic-stricken, you locked eyes with Geoff yet again. He was looking at you with a certain playful glint in his eyes and had a slight smile on his face. You realized you were spacing out, but then he started to speak.

"Hey, uh, were you looking for this?" He gestured with something that he held in his left hand, and you looked down to see your phone in his hand. You grabbed for it, but he set it down in front of you before you could get it.

"Uh, thanks. I was worried about that." You say, flustered and struggling for words. You couldn't bring yourself to make eye contact again at first, but eventually you worked up the will to lift your eyes up from the hem of your shirt and lock eyes with the older man. He simply just smiled, while Gavin was totally disinterested in the matter at hand, but rather on attempting to flag down the bartender.

"I think you might want this too. Looks like you might need it." You were confused for a moment, but looked down to realize that Geoff was holding a napkin. Then you remembered that you had beer dribbled down your shirt still. Your cheeks proceeded to become steadily even redder, to your own embarrassment. "Keep your beverages in your mouth much?" He said, a growing smile pasted on his face and loud laughter emitting from his lips. You had to admit, you loved Geoff's laugh.

You chuckled. "Hah, I guess I don't. I don't have a very good set of skills. What's an artist to do?"

"Ah, you're an artist, huh? You working for a company down here in Austin, or what?"

You smiled as you saw Gavin finally manage to get the attention of the bartender, looking quite frustrated as he did so.

"Nope, no company. All independent. Who would hire anyone without a degree anyway?"

"Well, it depends." He said, matter of factly, to your surprise. You had expected him to say what everyone else had always told you. The fact that he didn't sent a look of pure shock to your face. He laughed again, finding your expression amusing.

"What? Why do you look so shocked?"

"I've just been told all my life that people without degrees will go nowhere in life by every person in my life, even my friends."

"Phht, having a degree doesn't always matter. I don't have a degree, but I love what I do, so I have no reason to complain. As long as you're doing what you love, I don't see what's wrong with not having all the college shit. People are just so concerned about how much money is in their pockets. Doesn't mean they're happy."

You smiled, and nodded your head up and down frantically, finally glad to have met someone who saw things your way. "Exactly. I love what I do, and I barely make enough profit to afford my semi-decent semi-absolute shit apartment and make a little bit of profit on the side. Sometimes I barely get by, but I manage. I love what I do, so who cares, right?"

"Which is?"

You raised one eyebrow in confusion as you took a sip of your beer. You briefly glanced over at Gavin, but he was busy on his phone. As you set your beer down on the counter, you turned all your attention back to Geoff.

"Like, I know you're an artist and all that, but how do people see your art? And you said you make money off of it, so obviously people pay you for it too, so that has to happen somewhere."

"Uhh..." You paused, voice trailing off as you thought of all the bad things that could happen by telling Geoff where all of your stuff was. Sure, it was just an artists blog, but there was also all of your other stuff on there as well. Your obsessive reblogging of anything Achievement Hunter related, especially anything related to your favorite RT ship pair. God, that would be embarrassing if he ever found that. Though, who was to say he would even look? He probably wouldn't, hes a busy man. He has things to do.

You cleared your throat, and spoke up again. You rattled off your url and smiled when he seemed to actually be showing a genuine interest in what you were talking about. You had always thought he was nice, but you never thought that he'd be this nice, especially to stop and talk to some random stranger he met at a bar one night. Just the thought warmed your heart and made your smile grow larger.

As the night went on, you guys talked more and more, eventually including Gavin in your guys' conversation, all revolving around Xbox One vs. PlayStation 4 drama. Of course, it wouldn't be a night without Gavin having one too many drinks and getting a little too excited about his "new best friend". Hours passed, and before you knew it, it was nearly 1 in the morning. You glanced down at your phone, and looked up in shock as you realized what time it was.

"Oh, shit. It's almost 1 AM."

"Ah, really? Damn, wasn't planning on staying out this long. I guess I should probably go, I gotta get this drunk idiot home anyway." He gestured behind him with his head, and you watched as Gavin slowly slipped off his bar stool and slip onto the floor, saying nothing and only making one 'Ooph' sound as he hit the floor. You just laughed, and Geoff joined in. Once you calmed your laughter, you cleared your throat.

"Sorry if I kept you out later than I should've with my idiotic rambling. I can get really annoying if you stay talking to me for too long."

"Don't apologize, you didn't do anything. I was actually quite intrigued by your conversations and learning about what you do. It was actually really fun. Though, I must demand something before you leave."

You raise one eyebrow in question, but a smile works it's way on your face. He extends his right hand and uses his fingers in a beckoning motion. You were about to crack a witty comment about the gesture, but he interrupted you.

"Gimme your phone."

"Now Geoff, why would I do that?"

"Because the King wants it. I found the thing for you when you were about to flip your shit over it, so I deserve to put my number in it, don't I? Yes, I do."

You watched as he tapped his number in swiftly, momentarily getting distracted by Gavin falling over once again. Instead of helping the man, he just nudged him further away with the back of his foot, causing a squeak of disapproval from Gavin and a laugh of approval from you.

"We need to do this again. I'll see you around, (y/n)."

He waved briefly as he dragged Gavin's drunk ass out the door of the bar, and you turned around to take one last swig of your beer before you got ready to drive home. You hadn't had more than the one glass, so you were definitely fit to drive. Though, as you replayed Geoff's conversation from moments ago in your head, your beer came flying out of your mouth again. He knew. The two of you hadn't even once mentioned Achievement Hunter, but he _knew_.

'Because the King wants it.' _THE KING_.

You burst out laughing while you gathered your things, laughter racking your body, probably making you seem totally bat shit insane. Well, more than you already seemed. With that, you walked through the creaky door of the bar, the dribbles returned to your shirt, which you just now realized was the Achievement Hunter V-neck shirt.

This only made you laugh even harder as you walked to your car.

 

 

 


	2. Breathless Chances and Pure Frustration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The never-ending one shot continues on!  
> (it will have an ending someday, i'm sorry friends)

You were rudely awoken by the sound of your phone vibrating on the coffee table, the proceeding to fall onto the floor with a muffled thud. You shot up from your not so comfortable spot on your couch, which you had somehow managed to fall asleep on after getting home from the bar the previous night. As you brought yourself back up to a seated position, running a rough hand through your messy hair, thoughts of last night came flooding back into your mind. At first, you couldn’t remember very much about it, as it was late and you were currently exhausted. But, as time went on, the events from the night before became more and more clear. Then you remembered Geoff. At first, you believed it was real, but laughter shook your body as the stupidly improbable event had never even occured.

Though, the message on your phone said otherwise.

You rubbed your eyes exaggeratedly multiple times and then looked at the screen once more. Once you had figured out that you weren’t in fact still dreaming or having hallucinations, you opened your phone once more and ran your eyes over the text several times.

_Message from: Geoff_

_Hey there, (y/n), I hope you got home safely. I meant to check in with you last night, but as soon as I got home, I was passed out. Anyways, Gav and I are going to the Fort tonight to watch Griffon carve with her chainsaw, and I wanted to extend the invitation on to you. I think she’d love to meet you and y’all would probably strike up a conversation immediately. Even if you can’t stay the whole time, you should come for a little while. I’d love to talk to you again._

After finishing reading the text for the tenth time, a smile grew onto your face. Geoff wanted you to come along with him and Gavin to see Griffon work. Not only had you wanted to see Griffon work for months now, Geoff hardly ever invited anyone else to go along. It was more of just a Ramsey family thing. Though, he had invited you to go along. You. You could feel the blood rising to your cheeks causing an unexplained blush to appear on your face. After you had finished waving your hands around in front of your face in excitement, you managed to calm your shaking hands to allow you to type a reply.

_Sure, I’d love to! Uh, can I have an address? And I may be there a little later, because my car needs gas and I have something I need to get done today._

You set your phone down on the table with a small thud and you stood up to stretch for the first time all morning. As you did so, you sauntered over to your desk and sat down, booting up your computer. You heard the vibration of your phone behind you, so you spun around in your office chair in order to grab the device. You swiped it open and read the text that was enclosed in it.

_Message from: Geoff_

_Could you be there earlier if I picked you up and took you over there? I’d love for you to stay the whole time, my wife would probably love to meet you, and its so much fun hanging around over there. Plus, it’s a lot more fun when you don’t have to worry about finding parking. It’s hell down there._

You clicked on the tumblr icon on your computer and launched your art program, getting set up for another hard day’s work of drawing and work. You were contemplating streaming while you worked later, but if you were going to The Fort with Geoff later, you wouldn’t have the time. As everything was loading up, you grabbed your phone and typed out a swift reply.

I mean, if it’s not too much trouble for you to pick me up, sure. Don’t do it if it’s out of your way though.  
You grasped your drawing pen roughly, swiping the pen across the drawing surface several times, beginning the first request of the day. Though, you stopped once again as your phone began to ring off the hook.

_Incoming call: Geoff_

You had to take a moment to gather your bearings for a minute and calm your laughing, because Geoff had apparently set a custom ringtone for himself. As you tried to calm yourself, you just listened to the sound of his ringtone.

_FIIIIIIIIISH, FIIIIIIIIISH, FIIIIIIISH, FIIIIIIIISH, FIIIIIIISH_

Once you could finally breathe again, you swiped to answer the older mans call.

“Hello?”

“Hey, (y/n). Just figured I’d call rather than keep you busy texting rather than drawing.” You heard something clatter to the floor and heard a mix of yelling and squeals in the background. Following the ruckus, Geoff began to deliver comments about the current situation.

“What the hell was that?” You asked, a smile creeping onto your face just imagining what could’ve happened.

“Someone threw something at Gavin, so he did the Gavin thing.”

You laughed in response and he began to speak again.

“Picking up where we left off, it’s no problem for me to pick you up. You’ll just have to deal with Gavin in the car though, and possibly someone else. Depends on if Gavin gets his little friend to come with. You okay with that?”

“Yeah, sure Geoff.”

“Alright. Do you have an address for me to come pick you up at later?”

You rambled off your address, hoping that it wasn’t too out of the way for him. Though, he made a shocked sound, which didn’t help soothe your worries any more.

“Oh shit, you literally live right behind the office. That’s super easy to get to. Hell, you could even come over here and I can take you home with me after work.”

You’d known that you lived near the Rooster Teeth office ever since you watched your first RT Life and had seen your building right behind the building. Yeah, as expected, you’d had a little fan attack and squealed a little bit at the thought of it, but you also knew that they were busy people and probably wouldn’t ever want to meet you anyway. Though, as you were currently on the phone with Geoff, clearly you were wrong in some way.

“Uhh...I’m not sure Geoff…” As of he could sense your uncertainty, he began to go into comfort mode.

“Look, if you don’t want to, that’s fine. I’m just offering other alternatives to make things easier. If you want to come over here before we leave for the day, just send me a text and I’ll have someone open the gate so you don’t just look like you’re breaking and entering. We’re filming a GTA Let’s Play today, so you're welcome to come and sit through that, or you could just wait in the kitchen if you don’t want t hear our bitching. Don’t act like you wouldn’t love to come over here though. I already know you’re a fan, (y/n), just take the offer, dumbass.”

Another blush made it’s way to your face and you began to laugh at Geoff’s matter-of-fact tone with a hint of sarcasm that he was using with you. Even though Geoff was trying to convince you that you weren’t going to be interrupting anything, you still felt like you’d be interrupting and intruding. Though, something about the way Geoff had told you that you could come over made you feel less frantic about it. Maybe you could go over there for just a few minutes…

You sighed, then began to speak again.

“Sure, I guess. You sure that it’s alright if I come over there a little before you guys leave?”

“Of course. Can you be over here at like...four o’clock ish?”

You subconsciously questioned the time, but you just agreed to be over there at around four.

“Alright, I’ll get Kara to come and open the front gate for you. Unless you want to take the Ray approach and jump the fence instead?”

You chuckled. “Nah, opening the gate would be very much appreciated.”

“Alrighty, (y/n). Just let me know when you leave your apartment."

“Okay, Geoff. Thanks for the invite by the way. For both things.”

“No problem. I’ll see you around four. Bring anything you think you’ll need later, we probably won’t be back until about nine-ish tonight. See ya later.” He hung up, leaving you sat there with a goofy grin on your face and a giddy feeling set in your stomach.

As you began to continue your newest work, your thoughts ran rampant about what might happen when you eventually brought yourself to build enough courage to drag your ass over there.

\------------------------

You glanced at the clock. _2:37_

You glanced at the clock again. _2:37_

You turned your head away, but couldn't help but check once more. _2:37_

You made a frustrated sound, highly disappointed in the time. Sure, earlier today you had been on the verge on an anxiety attack because of the thought of going over to the office, but now you were just excited. Geoff had invited you to go over there, and he wouldn't have done it if he hadn't wanted you over there. You felt welcome around Geoff, and you weren't quite sure why. Though, who were you to complain? All you had wanted in life was to feel wanted by someone, and now you were. It felt nice.

You looked at the clock again. _2:38_

Your inner monologue had only taken up a mere minute. You had already finished your work for today, and you were too giddy to bring yourself to work anymore.

So, instead of be productive, you decided to sit around staring at the clock. Maybe you could text Geoff or something.

Before you had time to tell yourself that texting Geoff was a bad idea, you had already typed out a message and hit send.

_Hey Geoff, I'm bored and out of work. What are you guys up to?_

You groaned again, although this time it was at yourself rather than at the time, which was still moving at a snails pace. You should know better than to bother him, you knew he was a busy man.

Your text tone sounded loudly through your apartment.

_New Message: Geoff_

_We're waiting for pizza to show up. Eating a late lunch due to a 'Things to Do' recording running way later than we had anticipated. Have you eaten yet?_

You mentally questioned why he would be asking if you had eaten, but as you read the question, your stomach growled loudly. You remembered that all you had done today was work non stop, you hadn't even eaten breakfast. Suddenly you began to feel tremendously weak.

_Nope, just remembered that I haven't even eaten breakfast. Major mistake. Why?_

You began to think of places that you could get lunch, which was anything within a few minutes. Any longer and you might just pass out. You had needed to go grocery shopping, but you had never found the time. Maybe tomorrow.

_New Message: Geoff_

_Wow, great job, (y/n). I can imagine you're probably not feeling too great. Wanna come and eat with us? We just realized that we ordered one too many pizzas. I can come and get you if you want._

You had to admit, pizza sounded amazing, but the nearest pizza place to your house was several blocks down the street, and when you got down there, traffic got crazy. You probably wouldn't make it over there for at least 20 minutes. Then there's cook time...

Before you could stop yourself, the deed was already done.

_Yeah, sure, if you don't mind. I dunno if I can walk that far though. Not feeling the greatest._

Within moments, you were out of your chair and were throwing on a pair of black torn jeans and a basic t-shirt. You threw your hair up into a quick ponytail, just to make sure you didn't look too trashy and lazy.

You grabbed your keys and threw them into your pocket, the lanyard poking out of your back jeans pocket. You reached for your phone, suddenly feeling really light-headed.

_New Message: Geoff_

_I'll send Ray over to get you. He does live over there anyway. He left about a minute ago. Can you get downstairs on your own?_

You typed out a quick reply and yanked the door open, then started down the stairs.

_Yeah, no problem._

As you reached the bottom of the stairs, stopping right before the front door of the building, you glanced at the newest text.

_New Message: Geoff_

_He's out front._

You looked up from your phone and out the front window. Sure enough, there he was, Ray, standing outside. He was dressed as usual, shorts and an Achievement Hunter T-shirt. You hoped in your mind you wouldn't make a fool of yourself. This was kind of a dream come true.

He looked up and locked eyes with you as he'd heard the door open. He smiled at you, and waved slightly.

"Hey, you must be (y/n). Geoff's said a lot about you, you're quite popular over in the Achievement Hunter side of the office."

You felt yourself blush and your heart rate began to accelerate. Ray played it off as if nothing was happening and extended his arm out towards you.

"Just in case if you get lightheaded or woozy. Wouldn't want you falling down onto the concrete, would we?"

You giggled at the grin Ray had on his face and slapped his hand away.

"I'll be fine. I'm hungry not drunk."

He shrugged. "Suit yourself. Though, Geoff told me to get you to the office safely for some reason. Either he cares about you, or he thinks your really clumsy and won't be able to get anywhere without help."

You snorted. "Probably the latter."

Ray laughed in response. "Yeah, probably. He did say that the first time he met you, you had beer dribbled all down the front of your shirt."

You tried to play off your embarrassment by laughing, but you felt the blood rise to your cheeks once more and you began to laugh nervously. That was something that Ray did notice.

"Hey, come on." He placed a hand on your shoulder. "Everyone has their embarrassing moments. One time, I tried to jump the fence and ended up sprawled out on the grass when I landed face first on the other side of the fence."

You laughed hard at the way Ray said that. You looked up to meet his eyes and saw the dumb grin still on his face. You wished you could embrace your mistakes as well as he did. That was a skill you had never mastered, and probably never would.

Then you saw as he began to laugh even harder, as you collided with the front gate to the office. You put a hand on your forehead, right on a particularly tender spot that had hit the fence. You exaggeratedly scowled at Ray, showing your immense disappointment, but that only made him laugh harder. He opened the gate for you, still laughing. You tried hard to keep the scowl on your face but it was to no avail, you began to smile and laugh with Ray.

Maybe he could teach you a thing or two.


	3. Irritation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story has no brakes (so far)

As the two of you walked into the office, nervousness began to set in. As Ray opened the door to the Achievement Hunter office for you, your smile erased off your face and turned into a serious look of worry. Though, when you locked eyes with Geoff, you seemed to feel just a tad bit better.

"Hey, you made it here alive! Good job Ray." Ray gave a salute in his boss' direction and went back to sit at his desk with a small pat on your shoulder.

You were still standing in the doorway when Gavin came running in. He bumped into you with an exaggerated 'Ooph' and you turned around to look at him.

"Op, sorry love. Didn't mean to bump into you there. Nice to see you again, (y/n)." He then took his seat at his desk and you went back to your semi-calm standing position.

"Can we avoid killing her for just a mere few seconds? Damn." Geoff asked in a very sarcastic tone. You laughed and replied "I'd appreciate that, yes."

"Anyways, guys, this is (y/n). I met her at a bar last night, as strange as that sounds. She's a freelance artist and she also does a little bit of gaming here and there."

You nodded a hello to everyone, but shock overtook your face at what Geoff had just said. How did he know about the gaming thing?

"Wait, wha? You know about my gaming thing?"

"Well, duh, it's on your tumblr and I checked it right when you'd given me the address. I skimmed over it and saw the link. Checked out your stuff earlier. You've got yourself a pretty impressively sized gamerscore, my friend."

Yet another blush made its way onto your face as everyone began looking at you. You glanced around the room, skimming everyones faces, but one in particular caught your attention. Or rather, the back of someones head caught your attention. You noticed that Michael had payed no attention to you the entirety of the time you had been here. You had to admit, you were slightly hurt that he didn't care, but you mentally hit yourself for getting out of your 'no one will care' state of mind.

Luckily, for you someone yelled for Geoff out in the main area of the office. He got up, and you subconsciously followed him. There, you saw a man with 8 pizzas in his arms. As Geoff payed for the food, you grabbed the pizzas from the man and walked back into the office. You were going to ask where to put them, but instead, you just put them on Ryan's lap. He laughed and smiled up at you from his position on the couch. Then his expression turned into a grimace and he yelled out "God DAMN this pizza is hot!"

You simply laughed and took the pizza off of his lap and set it on Geoff's desk and took a seat next to Ryan on the couch. While you waited for Geoff to come back with plates, you sat silently, until Ryan struck up a conversation with you.

"So, (y/n), I heard Geoff say you have yourself a large gamerscore. How large is it?" He asked, adding a slight change of tone to the last sentence to something more suggestive sounding, and he gave a wiggle of his eyebrows. You giggled and began to speak.

"Uhh, I think it's at 390,650 right now? I dunno, I've been so busy this week, it's hard to keep track."

"Holy shit! Really? You're at a close second with Ray for that amount of gamerscore. Damn, no one can ever compete with Ray. I knew there was a reason that I liked you." He said, then added "Well, more than one reason. Who am I to deny that you are as beautiful as your competitively large gamerscore? Wait, did that make sense?"

Ryan had complimented you. Twice. What did you do in life to deserve this terrific instance?

You opened your mouth to reply, but as Geoff walked in, you decided against it. Instead, you just gave a very large and warming smile in Ryan's direction, which he gladly returned.

"Alright, idiots. (y/n) will be with us all day today, so either put up or shut up. She got bored at home and decided to come and watch us play and record the GTA lets play. Be nice or else I'll kick your ass. You've been warned." Geoff stated, his tone turning dark to emphasize his last words, which everyone took to heart. You looked around the room to see a few people looking at you, which you responded with an exaggerated hand wave, earning some laughs from the guys.

"She's pretty cool. I think she'll fit in perfectly around here." Ray said genuinely, which warmed your heart and made butterflies in your stomach. As the volume in the room grew louder due to the clatter of controllers and the constant chatter among the six men as they stood up from their desks and retrieved their slices of pizza, your thoughts overtook you.

In the last two days, you had gone from a lonely bird sitting in your apartment all by yourself, drawing your days of life away and never socializing, to a bird that was accepted by, in your opinion, some of the greatest and nicest guys around Austin. Just because of how your life had been in the past, you had expected them all to hate you, to leave you in the silence of your own dampened hopes and dreams alone like all the rest of anyone that had been in your life.

"Hey, (y/n), you gonna eat, or just wither away slowly on Ryan's couch? If you choose the latter, you're basically just selling your body to science. Who knows what that crazy shit will do with an actual dead body." Jack asks, adding a shiver to the end of his sentence. You laughed once, but he just gave you a grim and serious look. You were sure he was kidding at first, but now you're sat on the couch, next to Ryan, contemplating whether or not he was actually kidding or not. Maybe he really was mad.

"Psh, who said that I wasn't already going to sell my body to science? I mean, they might want to study the wonder of how I'm an alien." You put your right hand up with your fingers spread apart in the alien symbol, a goofy grin on your face.

"An alien, huh love?"

"Yeah. I mean, I have so much swag that it's out of this world, am I right?"

Ray laughed, nodding in response to your statement, mouth coated in red pizza sauce. He tried to say something back, but he just ended up almost spewing his pizza everywhere, causing a loud uproar from Geoff.

Though, in between bites of your own pizza, you noticed that Michael hadn't gotten any pizza, and was still stuck to his monitor screen. Although now, it appeared that he was busy playing a game. You watched as he played, staring intently at his facial features, tracing the lines of his face with your eyes. You could imagine yourself sitting around one day, wasting the day away simply just counting the freckles that dotted his soft cheeks. You noted the way his mouth moved whenever he got frustrated and cursed silently to himself. The way his arms flexed and his fingers seized around the controller in frustration.

_Back to Earth, (y/n). Don't space out now. It might seem creepy._

Yout took another large bite out of the slice of pizza you held in your hand and leaned back to rest against the back of the couch. You found a strange comfort in laying against the couch, relaxing and not having a care in the world. You felt at home here, accepted and cared for. It was nice.

"So, (y/n), if you're actually from some other planet, what happens when you blaze it up? People get high when they do that, but you're already high. So, what happens then?" Gavin asked quizzically, and you couldn't tell if he was entirely joking, or joking yet still a little curious.

"Well, Gav, how do you think I got here, hmm?"

Ryan swallowed hard and began to speak, a stupid smirk on his face.

"Do you ever wonder why we're here?"

"Fuck you, Ryan" Geoff said, amongst the mix of groaning and laughter in the office.

“Oh come on, what did I do?” Ryan asked quizzically, sarcasm lacing his words.

“Yeah, Geoff,” You added in. “you really should’ve expected that.”

Geoff snorted in response. “Yeah, I guess I should’ve. Anyways, you sticking around to watch us record? I’ve heard that it can be really funny, I dunno. You just have to suffer the horror of sitting next to that creep.” First Geoff gestured to you, then to Ryan, adding a strange look on his face when he gestured to Ryan. You laughed once, and swallowed your bite of pizza.

“Sure, I guess. I mean, no point of going home really. Already finished all my work I allotted myself to do today, and it’s pretty boring over at my apartment. That’s the life of a loner I guess.” You shrugged and took another bite of your pizza.

Geoff nodded once and proceeded to stuff all the remains of his slice of pizza into his mouth, then started to arrange his microphone on his desk.

“Geoff, no! Not with greasy pizza hands, christ!” Jack yelped out, a scowl on his face as he watched Geoff rub his greasy fingers all over the mic stand out of spite. They really are just grown 4 year olds.

Eventually, people began to finish up their food and started setting up for the GTA recording they were about to do. The large stack of pizza boxes turned into a strewn out mess of empty boxes all over the floor. As small mumbles and seriousness filled the room, you leaned back once more and allowed yourself to think. You had to admit, you were more excited than you wanted to let show. They had asked you if you wanted to watch them record. This was kind of a big deal. Even better, they all seemed to not totally hate you. Ray and Gavin loved poking fun at you on occasion, Geoff always laughed at your dumb jokes, and Jack and Ryan liked striking up conversation with you.

But then there was Michael.

He still hadn’t looked at you since you walked in the office. All he had been doing was playing whatever game he was playing or he was dead focused on his computer screen. Countless times you had wanted to strike up a conversation with him, but you were scared that you would just make an ass out of yourself and ruin everything that had been going so good since you’d set foot into the tiny office. So, you remained quiet, to your own frustration.

You watched from the couch as everyone synced up their recordings with the capture and audio, and then they were off. You watched Ryan’s screen the most, with the occasional glance at Gavin’s when he began screaming bloody murder. Michael was way more talkative now that they were recording, but he never looked over at you. Everyone else glanced over at you on occasion, but Michael never did. Geoff looked over at you to ask if you were doing okay, which you replied with a double thumbs up and a grin, and Ray would always look over at you when you began laughing at any joke he made. Usually you’d shy away from this much attention and isolate yourself, but you had to admit, it was a welcome change to let this happen. It felt different to you. It felt nice.

Approximately two hours later, due to technical difficulties, the familiar yell of “LLLLLET’S STOP!” echoed throughout the room and everyones controllers hit their desks with a loud clatter. You glanced at the clock on your phone and sighed at the time.

_5:07._

“Why so down over there, (y/n)?” Ryan asked.

“Oh, no reason. I just can’t believe how quickly time went by. It’s already time for us to leave.”

“Maybe Geoff will be super cool and let you come around here more often. I myself thought it was nice to have you around.” Ray said, almost in a pleading way to Geoff. Geoff snorted in response.

“It’s not like I’m going to tell her she can’t come around here. I mean, she is a friend, and it’s not like she’s some crazed fan. I liked you around, (y/n), it’s a nice change from this hardcore fest.” Geoff said to you, smiling at the end.

You blushed slightly and smiled at Geoff. You had no idea that when you had met him that this kind of thing would happen to you. This was nothing short of amazing.

“Wow, thanks Geoff. I guess if I wasn’t bothering anyone, then I might just take you up on that offer.”

Ray and Gavin cheered in the corner and high-fived for some reason, which you assumed was a good thing. You certainly hadn’t expected that to happen. Alright then.

“Alright, assholes, we’re out of here. Places to be. Anyone who’s on the train going to The Fort tonight, meet me outside. First person outside gets shotgun!” Geoff said as he grabbed his keys and his phone, then walked towards the door.

“Ooh!” You and Gavin screamed at the same time, and you both ran for the door of the office. Though, Gavin seemed very determined for shotgun, and you decided to screw with that. As he made his way to the main office door, you grabbed an empty game case and chucked it at him, aiming for the back of his head. As the case came in contact with the back of his neck, he squeaked, but continued running towards Geoff’s car, seeming to be running faster now. You grabbed your phone off the couch and shoved it into your back pocket. Out of your left eye, you saw Michael stand up and gather his stuff, shoving some games into his backpack and zipping it up.

As Ray walked by, he gave you a high five for what you did to Gavin and walked out the door, a swift goodbye said to you and he was gone. Jack waved politely and walked out, clearly wanting to go home. You sauntered out of the office and went towards Geoff’s car, saying goodbye to Ryan as you walked out. You hadn’t seen Michael walk out of the office yet, but it didn’t really matter much to you. He hadn’t said anything to you anyways.

When you finally reached Geoff’s car, you saw Gavin in the passenger side window, bouncing up and down like a crazed five year old. He waved excitedly to you, and you flipped him off in response, earning a visible squeak from him. You could just tell by the look on his face that he had squeaked at some point. You pulled at the door handle of the back seat of Geoff’s car and slid in, taking note of how squished together everything was in the back seat. Hopefully “Gavin’s little friend” Geoff had mentioned had decided to get his own ride.

You stared out the window, anticipating for Geoff to start driving, but the car remained still. You were about to open your mouth to ask why, but the door on your other side was jerked open, allowing the chilled air inside the warm car, to your own annoyance. Maybe it was Ray or something.

Nope.

As you glanced over, your mind went into overdrive and your eyes widened.

_Oh what the fuck._


	4. Meetings and Greetings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, its still going.

“Alright, let’s go. I could really use a beer and some time to relax. Today was way too stressful for it’s own good.” Geoff said with a sigh, and began to reverse out of his parking space.

Gavin turned his head to face Michael, and struck up a conversation with him.

“Hi, Micool!”

“Yeah, yeah, hi Gavin.” Michael mumbled while he stared out the window. Gavin frowned, then turned around, not expecting the less than enthusiastic response that he’d gotten from Michael. What had gotten into him?

“So, Michael, what game were you playing earlier?” You asked, finally breaking down your ‘don’t talk to Michael’ barrier. You hoped that maybe he’d talk to you now that you were trying to talk to him, but no dice.

“Mmph.” Michael grunted in response, still staring blankly out the window of Geoff’s car. You frowned, and just went back to staring out your window. “Oh...okay. Sorry.” You said, quite defeatedly. Geoff heard the hurt in your voice and glanced at you from the mirror, a look of concern plastered on his face. You simply just shook your head and broke eye contact, returning to staring out the window, a look of hurt in your eyes and the sting of impending tears at the back of your eyes.

Not now, (y/n), not now.

You sniffled hard as Geoff pulled into a parking space in front of a building. The area was quite relaxed at the moment, so clearly Geoff had arrived early. Oh well, you needed a beer to get your mind off of things. Maybe this time you wouldn’t spill it all over yourself. Everyone slowly began to pile out of the car, Gavin leading the way by running like an idiot into the yard around the back of the building. As you shut your door, you looked up, and locked eyes with Michael who was stood on the other side of the car. You kept his gaze for a few moments, giving him the chance to notice the sadness in your eyes, then you looked away and began to walk in the same direction Gavin had ran off to. You walked with your head down in defeat, trudging your feet slowly in the direction you desired to walk. You heard something behind you, which you could’ve sworn was a quiet swear from Michael, but you weren’t quite sure, so you played it off like it was nothing. Probably was nothing anyway.

As you rounded the corner of the building, you took in your surroundings. You saw the various wood carved sculptures Griffon had set up, probably to advertise the things that she was able to do, and you saw her work station. As you assessed the area, your eyes scanned over every little detail, which immersed you into a trance. There was so much to look at, every small sculpture, every color, it was amazing. A hand on your shoulder yanked you from your trance roughly, and you yelped out in surprise.

“Woah, (y/n), it’s just me. Is everything okay?” Geoff asked, worry coating every word.

“Uh,” you attempted to gasp out, breathing heavily in surprise. “Yeah, yeah...I’m fine. Just out of it, sorry.”

“Bullshit, (y/n). I saw the look on your face in the car. Did Michael do something?”

You sighed lightly, running a hard hand through your hair.

“No, Geoff, he didn’t do anything. It just seems like he hates me, and I don’t know why. Its just always bothered me not knowing if I did something wrong or not. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“(y/n),” Geoff put his hands on both of your shoulders, looking straight into your pained eyes. “I know somethings wrong. Maybe I can talk to him. I brought you here to enjoy yourself, so I want you to. Can I get you something to drink? I don’t know where Griffon is right now, probably the bathroom or something.”

“Yeah, sure Geoff, I guess that’s fine. Just a beer.” He nodded slowly and dropped his arms away from your shoulders, walking towards the bar. You looked around, and decided to sit in a chair with its back facing the setting sun. You’d just realized you’d forgotten your jacket at home and it was beginning to get colder. Might as well absorb the warmth of the sun while it was still there, right? As the cold air lapped at your bare arms, you mentally swore at yourself for forgetting your hoodie like a stupid idiot and you let your eyes wander around the terrain below your feet. You noticed all of the dirt and uncovered tree roots, the occasional tuft of grass here and there. As you were staring at the ground, you saw a shadow approaching where you were sat. You looked up to see Gavin standing above you, two beers held in his hands. He handed one to you, which you gladly took. You were really thirsty for some reason, your mouth being completely dry. He took the seat next to you and sat down, turning to face you.

“Why are you over here all by yourself, (y/n)? Micoo’s here, and Geoff’s somewhere.”

“Oh, I just wanted to sit in the sun. I enjoy the sunset.” You said faintly, not wanting to reveal how you really were just trying not to freeze.

“D’you have any idea what’s going on with Micoo?”

“Hmm?” You questioned as you took a sip from your beer. As you swallowed, you cleared your throat. “Oh, with Michael? No, no idea. He won’t talk to me at all. I don’t even know what I did wrong.” You said, shrugging and taking another sip of your beer.

“Doubt it was anything you did, love. He must just be in a mood.”

You shrugged again. “I dunno, I still think it was me. Oh well, I guess.”

“Gavin, can you come here?!” You heard someone call from inside. You were somewhat sad that you were going to be left alone again, but yet, it was also somewhat a relief.

“Sorry, (y/n). I’ll be back.”

You waved weakly as you saw him get up and walk away, but then you just went back to staring at the ground. You sighed once, then took yet another sip of your beer. It was actually kinda nice to just be able to sit around and relax, not worrying about anything. The sunlight felt nice on your back, so you allowed yourself to close your eyes and just relax. You heard footsteps grind against the dirt, but you decided to disregard them, too busy wrapped up in your relaxation. This was definitely a much needed break.

You heard the person sigh as they sat down in the seat across from you, but you payed no mind as to who it was. You figured that if they knew you, they would at least have the basic knowledge to speak up or something. A sudden gust of wind blew through the area where you were sat, turning you from semi-cold to freezing in an instant. You absent-mindedly shivered, teeth chattering as the shiver racked your body.

“You seem cold.” A voice said, though you couldn’t be bothered to open your eyes to see whoever it was.

“Well, duh.” You stated, adding a snort at the end as you sat your beer down on the ground next to you, eyes still closed.

“Well damn, sorry, just trying to make conversation here. Why would you forget your jacket in the middle of November anyway?”

“It’s not like I meant to. I left it somewhere and I can’t go back and get it.” You talked as your eyes still remained closed. You thought the voice sounded faintly familiar, though you were too immersed in your own thoughts to process who it was. The next time he talked though, you instantly recognized who it was.

You opened your eyes and looked around, taking in the surroundings. Nothing seemed too different, though when you leveled out your head and looked dead in front of you, you locked eyes with the man you had been conversing with. He looked at you for a few seconds, then took a sip of his beer, which seemed to be already halfway gone.

He swallowed then began to speak again.

“Well, if only I wasn’t an asshole, I’d probably give you my hoodie. Oh well.”

He shrugged, taking another large swallow of his beer, never breaking your gaze. You scoffed, then shook violently as another shiver racked your body. You cursed under your breath, then drew your arms into your short sleeved shirt, then pulled your knees up to your chest. Though, as the wind died down and the sun could be felt on your back, you began to warm up again, shivers and teeth chatters subsiding. You relaxed at the warmth coated parts of your bare skin, and the warmth spread across your body. Your eyes closed once more, thoughts subsiding and mind-numbing relaxation taking over. You sighed contently as the world seemed to fade.

You didn't hear as Michael grunted, coming to a full stand, and setting his beer down next to his chair. He sauntered towards you hesitantly, determined yet cautious to be sure to not disturb you too much.

This was definitely the most relaxed you'd been in months. Hell, probably the most relaxed you'd been ever since the incident with your parents. Maybe even before then. This was the perfect paradise.

Of course, nothing lasts forever. Though, maybe interruption wasn't a bad thing.

You shook violently as you felt a new warmth on your body. It was startling, but not necessarily bad. The new object of interest had started on the bare skin of your back, then moved from there to cover your arms, and finally all of your torso was covered, encasing you like an oversized cocoon. You inhaled deeply, a faint yet familiar scent filling your nostrils.

"So you don't die." He simply said, monotonous, yet caring. He walked back over to his seat to reclaim his space, and you watched him the entire way there. It was just something about him, his body, his stature...it was all so...entrancing.

Snapping yourself out of your trace once more, you cleared your now raspy throat and tried to make out a sentence.

“Thanks.” You managed to grumble out. You had wanted to say more, though you couldn’t manage anything more than that word. He shrugged it off, finishing off the last of his beer. You took a rather large sip of yours as well, trying to moisten your now completely dry mouth. One turned into two, then three, until the entire cup was gone. You stared down at the empty cup, contemplating whether or not to get more. Normally you would, though you were too freezing at the moment to make your legs work. Michael opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted suddenly by a new person.

“Need more beer there, love?”

You turned your body slightly, allowing you to look more to your right side. There, you saw Gavin, holding his second beer and donning his gold-rimmed sunglasses. He smiled at you, looking your face over once before offering you his beer.

"You can have mine if you want. I imagine we don't have that different of preference in beers anyway." He extended his hand out, allowing the beer to be right in your grasp.

_Maybe I shouldn't do it. We all know that I can get a little...out of sorts if I've had too much to drink. How would I get home?_

You were about to turn Gavin down, telling him that you shouldn't have more than one due to the fact that you still had to make your way back home. Though, a thought hit you suddenly.

_I didn't drive here. I do have a ride home...maybe one more wouldn't hurt._

"Sure, Gav. Thanks. I'm practically dying of thirst over here anyway." As you took the beer out of Gavin's hand, you licked your drying lips and took a sip of the beer. Sure, it definitely wasn't the kind you were used to, but this one was alright. It was a sweeter, smoother beer than the ones you were used to, but you liked it. It was definitely stronger than the ones you were used to though.

You swallowed, feeling the smooth liquid trail through your throat. You smiled contently and leaned further back into your chair, snuggling even more into Michael's jacket. You didn't want to make anything too terribly obvious that you were in absolute bliss with his jacket around you, constantly resisting the urge to place the light fabric underneath your nose and inhale deeply, letting the scent of Michael Jones fill your nostrils until you almost passed out. You didn't want anyone to notice, so you did it discretely, when you knew that no one was looking at you, especially Michael himself.

You heard the sound of shoes scuffing against the dirt behind you, and you leaned slightly over the edge of the seat, craning your neck to get a better view of who the person was. You'd assumed it was just Geoff or Gavin, but you were only half right.

"You must be (y/n). Pleased to meet you, I'm Griffon." You looked up into her stellar blue eyes, and extended your hand out. You saw Geoff standing proudly at her side looking down at you.

"Yes, I am, the pleasure is all mine, Mrs. Ramsey." She took your hand, shaking your hand once and her head multiple times.

"Please, call me Griffon. None of that Mrs Ramsey bullshit. Geoff's told me quite a bit about you. I hear that you've got yourself quite the drawing hand there, little one." She smiled at you, causing you to blush. You'd never thought that someone like Griffon would ever see your artwork. Too many good things happening all at once today.

"Well, I suppose. I just draw whatever comes to mind."

She made a gesture towards you to follow her, so you stood up, setting your somehow half empty beer down next to your chair and forcing your arms through the holes of Michael's hoodie. You stumbled slightly as you stood up, causing Michael to look up from his phone at you, but he went right back to it when he saw that you weren't a damsel in distress at the moment. Within moments, you were at Griffon's side, walking with her towards a garage looking building.

"Did you ever take any art classes?" Griffon asks, looking over to meet eyes with you.

"No, not really. I took art once, but never really continued with the art class. I didn't like that we had set assignments, because I always prefered to draw whatever my current desire was when I picked up the pencil."

She laughed quietly, shaking her head once. "You're so modest about your art. Free spirit, I like that. How do you think I went from drawing comics to carving wood with a chainsaw for a living?"

"I really had always wondered how that happened."

"Free spirit, as stupid and cheesy as that sounds. I really do love what I do though." She punctuated her sentence as she walked into the garage. You looked around, your eyes becoming wider every moment.

"Holy hell....this is amazing." You said breathlessly as you looked around at all of her works. Her chainsaw was lying on the table to your left, and with one simple glance you were over at said table, looking it over from top to bottom.

"Eh, its alright. I've got some ideas on some new works that I want to do, and those are the ones im excited for." She grabbed for her chainsaw, pausing for a moment then gesturing you to follow her back outside.

You were moments away from asking her a question about her new works, but she interrupted you instead.

"Geoff's said a lot about you. He showed me your stuff, and I've gotta say, you have mighty talent, my friend. Ever think about a job in graphic design?" She asks simply, looking into your eyes with genuine wonderment.

"Uhh, what kind of graphic design?"

"Like, T-shirts or poster design, or even photography. Whatever floats your boat, really."

"I guess that sounds cool. I mean, it really does. But...there's no one out there that will even think twice about hiring me. I have a simple high school diploma, and no college education what so ever. I'm a simple girl with trust issues and no parents and...just..."

Your voice trailed off as your voice cracked slightly, tears welling up in your eyes. Griffon placed an arm over your shoulder comfortingly, pulling you into a side embrace.

"What if I told you I could work my magic and get you a job? What would you say?"

You wiped a stray tear from your face, sniffled slightly, and looked up into her eyes.

"Really? I couldn't ask you to do that..."

"Its fine, I offered to do it. Though, I'll only do it if you promise that you'll give it a chance." She stated reassuringly yet serious and firm, but you trusted her. You nodded at her, a thankful and warm look in your eye.

"I'll see what I can do. Though, on one condition."

You looked at her expectantly, signaling for her to tell you what the one condition was.

"I better be seeing you around here more often. We've just barely scratched the surface of a good relationship, and I think I could really have one with you. I gotta go, I'll see you next Friday, yeah? Okay." She walked away, a cheerful glint in her eyes as she turned to go back to her work. You sauntered over to your chair hesitantly, wiping the tears away from your eyes with the sleeves of Michael's jacket. You sat down, placing your beer in your hand and taking a large sip from it. You weren't the type of person to drink to numb the feelings, but you didn't want to make a total ass out of yourself, especially in front of everyone that you had just met within the last few days.

As you sat, Griffon began to work, winking at you before she did.

Maybe they could all teach you a few things.


	5. Hangover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I apologize if this is bad, everything's been so BUSY I haven't had time to write and I needed to place a filler chapter here anyway. There would be more words, but the next chapter starts getting to the good stuff.

Okay, so maybe you shouldn’t have had those extra beers.

It was now late, the sun long gone and the darkness encasing the atmosphere. Geoff and Gavin were currently running around in circles, Gavin being drunk and yelling at everyone, repeatedly asking for a fight. When Gavin had come up to you, slurring out his challenge, your only response was booping him on the nose, much to his displeasure. He turned away from you then, proceeding to go over to Geoff and challenge him instead. Thus, leading Geoff into chasing him around trying to beat the living shit out of him.

Michael had been sat across from you all night, switching between watching Griffon, yelling at Gavin, staring at the sky spaced out, and being on his phone. It was a pretty mellow night for everyone.

Though, you were currently in your chair swaying back and forth uncontrollably.

When you had first arrived, you had told yourself that you wouldn’t go too far with the alcohol, not wanting to make a total ass out of yourself in front of everyone. After Gavin had given you your second beer of the night, which you had downed almost instantaneously, you said you were done for the night. Then your thoughts took over, plaguing your mind relentlessly.

Come on, (y/n), you can let loose. You have a ride home, so there’s nothing to worry about there. Plus, you do deserve some relaxation time. What difference will it make?

After you had constantly tried time and time again to push your thoughts away, they still wouldn’t go. Though, maybe they were right? So, you let yourself cave in. 2 more beers later, here you were now. Swaying in your chair, semi-drunk off your ass. In the process of being in your current state, you had told some awful puns, cussed out Geoff, and nearly punched Gavin in the face when he ran by you. You recalled saying something to Michael, but you couldn’t remember what that was right now. You just hoped that you could go home soon, before anything got any more embarrassing for you.

“Hey, (y/n). You ready to go?” Geoff yelled from his spot next to Gavin, who was now hunched over with both arms over his stomach. Well, guess we know how that ended. In the time that you had spent reminiscing the embarrassment of the night, Griffon had finished what she was working on and had cleaned up entirely, packed up for the night and ready to head home. You stretched your arms up over your head, the loose fabric of Michael’s hoodie piling loosely near the crooks of your neck. You nodded slowly and stood up, nearly falling over while doing so. Your feet scuffed as you walked slowly towards the group, dust being strewn up in clouds behind you.

Once you reached Geoff and the rest of everyone else, everyone began walking towards the car. Though this time, you had one extra person in the car with you.

“Gavin, get in the back.” Geoff says firmly, opening the passenger door for Griffon. Gavin squeaked in protest, but still complied with Geoff’s demand. He scrambled himself into the back seat of the car, taking up the right back seat. Geoff got in at the drivers side, which left you and Michael out in the open. He stared at you, getting ready to ask a question, but just stared at you swaying back and forth, eyes cloudy.

“Uhh…(y/n)?” Michael asked, irritated. You tweaked an eyebrow up at him in response, momentarily stopping swaying to stare him down.

“Oh my hell, just shove her in the fucking seat!” Geoff exclaimed, banging on the steering wheel. Michael grabbed you by the shoulders with a muffled curse and stuffed you into the middle seat, putting you in between him and Gavin. As Michael shut the door, Geoff backed out of the parking lot and pulled onto the vacant street.

You looked out the window, watching street lights streak across the night sky as the car flew by. The longer you watched, the more and more nauseous you got. You laid your heard on Michael’s shoulder, earning a surprised grunt from him.

_Don’t fall asleep, (y/n). Don’t do it. You’ll just embarrass yourself-_

\---------------------

You awoke with a start, dream coming to an immediate halt. Blood rushed to your head and spots dotted your eyes as you sat up swiftly. Your head span and pounded against your skull, a sharp pain shooting down to your eyes, eventually hitting your stomach hard. Nausea set in quickly, and you reacted immediately, rushing into the bathroom and slamming the door. You crouched near the toilet, breathing in and out steadily in attempts to calm your stomach. Minutes passed, and you eventually just sat down on the ground, leaning your back against the cool bathtub. Now that I think about it, a bath sounds really good right now.

You stood up slowly, propping yourself up on the edge of the bathtub. Once you gained your balance, you stepped cautiously over to your bedside table to gather your phone in your hands. You grabbed your bluetooth speaker as well and headed back into the bathroom to start up a nice warm bath. The knobs creaked as you turned them and the water began to spill out of the faucet. Hell, even the water hitting the tub hurt your head. What had even happened last night?

Reaching into your medicine cabinet, you grasped your hand around the bottle of aspirin and got yourself a small cup of water from the tap. Hopefully that starts working soon, keep yourself slightly less bedridden and pissed off today. You stripped off your clothes carefully, not moving too fast for yourself to process. One by one, you stepped your feet into the warm water, loving the feeling of the warmth against your feet. Once you had gotten fully immersed into the bath water, bubbles in so large of a quantity that they were nearly spilling over the threshold of the tub and all over the floor. Bubbles never hurt anyone, did they?

You threw on some Starbomb music as quiet background noise and opened up your phone.

_11 new messages._

You looked at the screen quizzically as you unlocked and opened your phone, surveying the senders of the messages.

_5 New Messages: Geoff_

_2 New Messages: Gavin_

_4 New Messages: Unknown Number_

Unknown number? Who else got your number? Maybe it was Ray, who knows. Probably got it from Gavin or something.

Opening Geoff's message folder first, you read from top to bottom, taking in everything.

_Geoff: Hopefully you got inside okay??_

_Geoff: Why am I asking you, you're passed out cold._

_Geoff: I'll try to run by at some point tomorrow and bring Alka Seltzer. You're sure as fuck going to need it, thats for sure._

_Geoff: Are you up yet?? You didn't die over night did you. Gavin will kill me if you did._

_Geoff: Just fucking call me when you get up._

You laughed lightly, amused about how concerned he was for you. Shaking the water droplets off of your hands that had splashed up from the faucet, you began to type out a response, fingers making a tap sound with each collision on the screen.

Hey Geoff, sorry, I wasn’t up until now. I guess I must’ve done a number last night, because I feel like trash at the moment. Don’t worry about going out of your way to come over here to bring me stuff, I’m sure I can manage on my own, maybe?? I just don’t want to inconvenience you on a Saturday.

You hit send and watched as the message sent to Geoff, then switched over to Gavin’s message folder. There was a lesser amount of messages in his, though just the same

_Gavin: Hey love, you are absolutely tippy toppers, you know that? ;)_

You laughed loudly as you read that message over twice, knowing that he had sent that last night before he had passed out from being drunk. Though, his second message was sent this morning, and was exponentially more sober than the previous message. You were relieved and disappointed at the same time at that instance.

_Gavin: Woah, sorry about last night. I guess we were both pretty screwed up after last night. Anyway, Geoff says he’s going to try to run over to your place at some point to make sure you aren’t dead or anything. Are you coming to the office on Monday too?_

You ran a rough hand through your hair, wiping it from covering your eyes so that you could read your response to Gavin.

_Hah, we really must’ve. I feel like a walking zombie today, and I don’t even remember what happened last night mostly. I already told Geoff not to worry about coming over here today because it’s too far out of the way for him. About Monday, I have no idea. Probably not though, I don’t want to intrude too much._

You were about to go back to read the unknown number’s messages when Gavin responded back with a lightening fast response. Why was he even up?

Gavin: Oh come on love, it’s fine. Plus you’re bound to have yourself a mighty hangover. I know I have one, but you slammed more beers back than I did, definitely. ‘Is it bad that I remember almost nothing about last night?’ you typed in reply, worried thoughts flowing out from your fingers and into the message, those words being whisked away to be seen by Gavin in a matter of seconds.

You laid your head back against the cold tiling of the wall as you sat in the warm water, the alcohol coming out of your pores, running off into the water. A drip ran down your brow, and you swatted it away with your hand quickly. At first, you’d thought it was just water from the tub, but as your hand had reached your hairline, sweat was pooling around your hair follicles. Maybe the water was a little too hot. Realizing a decent amount of time had passed, you sat up, pulling the plug on the tub. You watched for a moment as the water swirled down the drain swiftly, a mesmerizing image in itself.

As you stepped out of the draining tub, you dug your toes into the soft shag bath mat and wrapped yourself up into your soft bath towel. It was only a matter of moments until you were fully dressed in another clean pair of pyjamas, fully prepared to do nothing but snuggle on the couch all day, nursing away your hell of a hangover.

You threw your towel down messily on the cold tiled floor, the towel laying in a crumpled wet heap. You snatched your phone off the the edge of the tub and slammed the door shut behind you, completely disregarding the towel for the time being. With your head pounding and your vision spinning, a towel going sour and wrinkled was the least of your concern.

Your old couch creaked under your weight as you flopped down onto it, yanking a large green fleece comforter up to engulf you in its warmth. The pounding of your head subsided as you relaxed your muscles and slumped into the couch, warmth encasing you. Grabbing the remote off the end table next to you, you flipped the TV on, also starting up your Xbox in the process. You heard your phone vibrate next to you as you joined a game of GTA online, seeing your character stood in your large garage.

_Gavin: Well, it really depends. You drank a few beers and sat watching Griffon. You almost punched Michael twice, but luckily he didn’t kill you. Granted, you danced a lot for no reason and said some...interesting things to Michael, but I don’t think he cared. Nothing to worry about._

You typed out a swift _‘What the fuck did I say?!’_ to Gavin and went back to GTA, but remembered the other messages suddenly. You flicked open your phone once more, looking over the number first, and then the messages.

_Unknown Number: Hey, uh, this is (y/n), right? I swear, if Gavin gave me the wrong number and made me look like an absolute tool I’ll kill him._

_Unknown Number: Okay what the fuck? It must not be the right number, sorry. I might not know you but Gavin is fucking dead tomorrow, I swear. That’s all you need to know._

_Unknown Number: Screw this, I checked the number in my phone with the number Geoff and Gavin have and it’s the exact same number. Are you dead or some shit, (y/n)?_

_Unknown Number: Okay, fuck you then. Don’t respond to my messages. Damn, I try to be a nice guy and this is what I get, huh. Fuck that._

You laughed, tapping the keyboard once in order to start typing out a reply. You figured you knew who it was, though you didn’t want to assume. After you replied, you threw your phone down on the armrest and went back to GTA, realizing that you were now being followed creepily by two other male players. Deciding you didn’t want to be harassed today, you logged out of GTA and switched over to Peggle, only wanting a simple match to try and get that one last achievement you were working on. Though, as you saw the bright and cheery title screen of Peggle, your headache came back full force, which had you strewn out on the couch, writhing in pain at your throbbing head. You wrapped your hands around your head, breathing deeply until you managed to get the extreme pressure to be relieved, flopping back down onto you back. You heard your phone buzz and the screen came to life on the couch, the unknown number flashing across your screen once more. You disregarded it as you turned off the TV quickly, hearing your Xbox controller clatter softly to the floor against the carpet. Grabbing your phone, you trudged off back towards the bedroom, the green fleece blanket draped over your shoulders.

As you snuggled down into the bed, head still pounding, you turned on your phone. Now that your head was rested in between your fluffed up pillows, your nausea subsided momentarily, drowsiness washing over you. You yawned widely as you read the text, which had multiplied into three more since you had gotten up off the couch.

_Unknown Number: Yeah, idiot, this is Michael. Or is it?_

_Unknown Number: Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have called you an idiot. But it really is Michael I swear. Scouts honor or some shit._

_Unknown Number: Are you dead? Anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to so see Griffon again sometime soon? I mean, like, with Gavin and Geoff. Or by ourselves. I don’t really mind. Oh, fuck it. Would you like to go out sometime? I’m not free for like a month but...yeah…_

You were about to type out a reply when your screen went black, hibernating itself to save power. Sure, you could easily turn it back on, though you were absolutely drained, sickness and exhaustion washing over you in a tsunami. The phone slipped through your fingers as you curled up in the blanket, breathing slowed and mind wandering into your dreams.


	6. Blossoming Friendships, and Wilting Moods

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, firstly I want to apologize about the contents of this chapter particularly, as it's probably not what you were expecting. I just got carried away with this part and had SO much fun writing this, I was smiling almost the entire time. So sorry.  
> Secondly, I think this story maaaay end up being even LONGER than it is now. I have some ideas that I want to implement and that I love the idea of. Sorry not sorry.
> 
> Yeah. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this as much as I did! :)

**Two Months Later:**

After two months, you'd expect something to have had happened, right? To your own disappointment, in fact almost nothing had changed. Time had ticked by, consuming the seconds, minutes, hours of you life as it passed by, 60 days gone by at light speed. What had changed? Well, you had bought a new desk for yourself finally, your old one having holes bored into it from years and years of wear and tear. Though, that was about all that had changed. You remember perfectly what had happened two months prior, and how your life had taken a turn for the absolute best.

Exactly two months prior to the current date, you had met Geoff at a bar. It was hard to believe that it wasn't just yesterday that you had encountered him and Gavin at the 6th street bar, it all seemed like it had just happened yesterday.

Since then, you had kept a strong relationship with Geoff and his coworkers, as you had finally obtained all of the Achievement Hunters' numbers. You had been welcomed around the office whenever you felt like popping over there, whether it was just for lunch or if it was all day because you had nothing to work on. Even though they were about as close to you as friends can be, you could safely say that you wouldn't be offered a job with them, even though you absolutely wanted one. You have to admit, the thought of a job offer had crossed your mind more than once, even though every part of your being was telling you that it wouldn't happen. You still could hope though, and thats exactly what you did.

Even though your thoughts constantly wandered to being that one special person in Achievement Hunter, your job was still being a freelance artist, getting paid merely by the requests of anyone who actually knew who you were. Although, if you took the time to think back on how work had been going two months prior, you would remember when you had said that you had the perfect amount of money to balance bills and leisure money, the ideal balance achieved for your life.

Though, that didn't seem to be the case anymore. As this month came to a close, you realized that you barely had the money to cover this months bills. Normally that wouldn't be alarming, due to the fact that you didn't really favor going out and spending money anymore, but the fact that you barely had enough to cover your small bills was beyond concerning. You sat at your desk, staring, mouth set in a flat line of frustration and unamusement. Surely your calculations must've been wrong, there was no way that you only had that much left in your PayPal account. As you sat on the verge of tears, you yanked up your calculator again, punching in the numbers with a force that caused the keys to slam into the device. You took a deep breath, in and out, then hit enter. You squeezed your eyes shut momentarily, but then opened them with a burning hope inside. Though, your eyes finally spilled over with tears as you saw that the calculations weren't in fact wrong. It was unbelievable, and it was the true reality.

Maybe art just couldn't cut it anymore.

Normally you would be fine just paying your bills and saving money by staying in for the next month, but the hard part was knowing that if you paid your bills, you wouldn't have the money to get gas. Without gas, it was impossible to go buy groceries, which you also didn't possess the money for. Tears spilled from the threshold of your eyelids as you sat, feelings of helplessness washing over you.

_What am I going to do?_

As you remained sat in your chair, the feelings of helplessness washed away and were replaced by anger and worry. Frustrated, you grabbed the first thing you could grab hold of and threw it at the wall in front of you. The glass collided with the wall and made a loud crash, glass cascading to the floor and blending into your carpet. Normally, with you living in an apartment, you wouldn't do anything too noisy to make your neighbors angry with you, but you knew that this one particular neighbor was quite understanding.

_EUCALYPTUS!_

Speak of the devil.

Your phone went off, the loud ringtone bouncing off the walls of your apartment. After calming down slightly, face no longer burning with frustration, you reached over and grasped your phone, flicking it open and punching in your lock code. Before you even read the message, you knew what it was about.

You also knew his specialized ringtone.

_Ray: What the hell was that?! It sounded like something fucking huge hit the wall, are you okay?_

As you read his concerned message, more tears streamed down from your eyes. You blinked quickly, attempting to blink away the tears. As your eyes cleared and the tears dotted your eyelashes, you typed out a reply to Ray, all frustration leaving your body, replaced back with helplessness and now exhaustion.

_Sorry, I threw glass at the wall. Something bad happened and I'm really pissed about it. Hopefully it didn't interrupt whatever you're doing?_

Ray: Oh my God, (y/n), what happened that made you pelt the innocent wall with glass? I'm streaming and it may have picked up on my mic, but the only reactions I've gotten from viewers is worry for you. My reaction wasn't exactly pleasant. Yeah.

You sighed, silently reprimanding yourself for interrupting his stream. You knew that this was a time he committed to talking to his fans, and you didn't want to ruin that.

_Oh shit, sorry. I shouldn't have done that. Fuck, I ruined your stream. Shit._

You threw your phone down. head in your hands and a loud yell of frustration escaped your lips. I have a certain talent of fucking everything up, don't I?

_Ray: No no, you didn't ruin anything. Seriously. Do you want me to come over there? I'm really worried._

_No, don't interrupt your stream for me, please. I can just stay over here._

_Ray: Fine, if you won't let me stop the stream, can you at least come over here? I'm about to wrap it up anyway. Please?_

You let out another small yell, though this time it was of defeat. You scooped up your lanyard of keys and grabbed your comfiest blanket off your couch. You yanked the front door open, locking it and then closing it behind you, making a small slam, but not enough to disturb anyone else around you. You reached for his door handle, shoving your body against the door to force it open. Though, when the door didn't open, you pouted in frustration. You jiggled the door handle in annoyance, and then grabbed for your keys, grabbing the key with a rose that you had painted onto it yourself. You shoved the key into the keyhole, the door flying open.

"Oh, shit! Damn, (y/n), could you open the door any louder?" Ray asks, a glint of laughter in his eyes as he turned to look at you. You smiled a fake pleasant smile, then turned it into a scowl and flipped him off. He let out a yelp of fake pain and used one hand to cover his "wounded heart".

You glared at him as you flopped down onto the couch behind him, a perfect view of the game that he was playing. It appeared that he was working on another achievement, though it seemed like he was on the verge of giving up. He turned back again to look at you, though this time his eyes were filled with concern as he mouthed 'Are you okay?'

You shook your head in a weak 'no' as your head drooped onto a pillow next to you, and you brought your blanket all the way up to your neck, a cozy cocoon forming around you. Settling into the couch, you laid your head down onto the pillow beneath your head and let your eyes rest. An overwhelming sense of nausea flooded over you, causing you to grimace and force your eyes shut even more tightly. You let out a faint moan of pain as your stomach convulsed in on itself. You heard a sigh from Ray, but you immediately disregarded it as you relaxed again, muscles in your face went still and exhaustion washed over you. You could hear Ray's voice mumbling in the distance, talking to those who were on his stream at the moment, but it wasn't clear as to what he was saying.

You were jolted from your sleep as you felt the couch move next to you, a hand resting on your head. You were about to shoot upright, when you heard the faint "Shh, it's fine, just stay down," and a hand rubbed circles around your temple. You blinked awake slowly, your tired eyes meeting Ray's immediately as they opened. They were filled with worry, but still glinted with laughter just like when you had first met him. You smiled faintly, the muscles in your face tight and unwilling to move like you wanted them to. You turned from laying on your side to laying on your back, facing the ceiling. You scooted closer to the back of the couch, allowing more room for Ray to sit down near you. You cleared your throat, getting ready to say something dismissive to try and convince him that you were fine, but he covered your mouth with the palm of his hand and began talking instead.

"Don't even bother telling me that you're fine. I know it's bullshit, and I know that people don't throw glass at a wall because they're 'fine'. What's really going on, (y/n)?" He asked, voice swamped with concern. He had a slight frown on his face, clearly conveying the tone in his voice to a tee. You shook your head in an attempt to say no, but your eyes failed you as they welled up, tears spilling over the threshold. Sitting upright, you slumped over, tears falling onto the blankets covering your legs. Ray pulled you closer to him and you cuddled into him without hesitation, sadness washing over you and small, weak sobs creaking out of your throat.

"No...Can't pay..." You choked out, unable to form the words you desperately wanted to say. As he spoke, you could feel the rumble deep within his chest, where your head was rested against him.

"What was that, (y/n)? Calm down, take a minute then talk to me." He said lovingly, as he brought a hand up to stroke your hair. You cleared your throat of more blockage and began to speak, even though the tears continued to spill.

"I have no money. Can't pay my fucking bills. Everything's fucked." You say quietly, sadness slowly transforming into anger as you reached the end of your sentence.

"Wait, what? I thought you said you make a good amount of money doing your art commissions?"

"Yeah, I used to, but now I barely get any commissions anymore. I have barely enough to either pay my bills or get gas for my car. At this point, it's one or the other."

He shook his head, attempting to grasp the words, trying to place two and two together.

"So...what does that mean?"

"It means," you said, sobs finally subsiding, "that I either need to get a job, a real job, or I need to move out into a cheaper place. I don't know...maybe my parents really were right..."

About a month prior, you and Ray had discovered that you lived next to each other and had begun hanging out even more, and getting even closer on a deeper level. Eventually, he had wondered why he never saw your parents or relatives coming around and worked up the nerve to ask. Just by those simple words, which he had said while the pair of you were sat on the floor eating pizza straight from the box, tears spilled from your eyes, as did the sob story of your abandonment had out of your mouth. Just by that one moment, the two of you had gotten closer than ever, and the night of gaming had ended with your falling asleep cuddled in his arms as he attempted to comfort your broken heart. After that, the two of you had made it a ritual to always see each other at least once a night, whether it was you going over for a soda and a quick talk, or a gaming night which inevitably turns into an overnighter by accident. Recently, you had realized that Ray was the closest friend you had in Texas, if not anywhere. You'd lost all contact with any other friends after your parents left, and it seemed like it was always Ray that you turned to.

After you'd openly admitted to Ray late at night that you were convinced he was your best friend, he has said the same back to you with a smile plastered on his face and a firm hug. After that, you were a regular around his place, now having had exchanged keys so that each of you had keys to the others apartment. On one side of the spectrum, it was so that if one of you heard something out of the ordinary coming from next door, the other could get in to check up, but on the other side of the spectrum it was just because the both of you craved more time together. Plus, now you could sneak in whenever you wanted, maybe steal a piece of cold pizza or two. He never seemed to mind waking up to you passed out with your face on the counter, a plate of pizza crusts next to your head.

All that brings you back to how you are now, crying into his shoulder and confessing all your current problems. He always told you not to worry about seeming like a bother to him, but you couldn't help it. Although you would normally just act like nothing was wrong, for some reason you couldn't today. Ray was always there for you when you needed it, though you hadn't had an actual breakdown since that one night when you'd revealed everything to him. Though, he was here now, holding you, no judgement anywhere near him, only comfort and worry.

You sniffled roughly as you pulled away, finally done sobbing into his chest. You wiped your eyes with your hand, stray tears still flowing down your cheeks. You looked at Ray, who kept a hand on your as he leaned over to the end table and grabbed a box of kleenex and put them on your legs. You squeezed his hand in silent appreciation, smiling at him as you blew your nose unattractively.

"Sorry." You choked out through a stuffy nose. He shook his head and pulled you into another hug, and this time you returned it, sighing into him.

"(y/n), how many times have I told you to never say sorry for being sad?" He asks sternly, eyes meeting yours.

"Yeah, yeah. Anyways, have you eaten yet?"

He let out a breath, causing his lips to part. "No, not yet. At first, I was planning on cutting the stream like, two hours ago, but I ended up going over to work on another achievement. It wasn't worth it though, because I never even got it."

As you sat, you could feel a sneeze coming to you, your sinuses beginning to flare. Though, from Ray's angle, he looked at you and saw you making probably the stupidest face alive. You had your mouth slightly agape, nose scrunched up and eyes wide. At first, you were going to cover your face with your hands, but one hand was keeping you sat upright on the couch, and the other was currently being partially held by Ray. Sure, you didn't think too much into that, but you refused to move it in fear of him letting go. Suddenly your thoughts all stopped as your head was propelled forward, a force seeming to be of a thousand miles per hour. Your grip tightened on his hand as the sneeze fell from your lips, letting out the most pathetic of squeaks.

"What the fuck, (y/n)?" Ray asked between laughs, clearly making fun of your squeaked sneezes. You slapped him on the arm in protest, but started to laugh yourself. Eventually, after Ray stopped sobbing from laughter and composed himself, the two of you began talking normally again.

"So, have _you_ eaten yet?" Ray asked you, and your stomach growled in protest.

You shrugged. "I was going to eat after I did my bills. But, uh...that didn't go so well I guess. So no."

"Well, we could either order pizza and give you another reason to break into my apartment tomorrow, or we could go out. Even though it's like, 9:00 there's still bound to be places open. Mostly the super fancy date places, but I think there's a burger joint down on Congress that usually isn't too busy after 8:30."

You had to admit, burgers sounded fantastic, but Congress was really far away from where the two of you were, and you didn't have the money for gas to drive the pair of you down there.

"Uhmm...but, I don't have gas money..." you said faintly, voice trailing off in a mixture of embarrassment and disappointment. You could feel the tears that began to well, but you resisted the urge to cry again. As the tears were about to fall, Ray interrupted you by throwing a tissue at your face and jumping up off the couch.

"Well, (y/n), you do know there's a such thing as public transportation, right? Especially because A) we do live in Austin, and we have the Metro, and B) we live in a common area for traffic. I guess there's always a cab, if all else fails." Ray says, getting up to slide on his converse and grab his hoodie. You sighed as you stood up, stretching your arms behind your head. Your hands were shaking, blood sugar quite low due to the fact that you hadn't eaten in awhile. You groaned, as you had realized yet another problem with Ray's plan.

"I don't have cab money either, dumb ass. I don't even know how much money I do have." You said, a frown wrapping around your smile, covering it up entirely. Ray turned away from the counter he was looking over to walk towards you, placing his hands on your shoulders and looking directly into your eyes.

"Can I not pay for a pretty friend's dinner? Come on, (y/n), did you really think I was going to make you pay for our night out?" He asked you lightheartedly, a smile dancing across his lips.

"Well, no, not the whole thing. Just my half, like always." You admit, a smile making its way onto your lips as well. Fuck, his smile was infectious.

"Not tonight. Tonight," he says, lifting you up and tossing you over his shoulder, despite all of your constant protests, including your hands slamming against his back, "isn't the typical kind of night. You're coming, and that's final, (y/n). Deal with it." He says, carrying you out the door, a slam being heard as it collided with the frame.

"Ray, I don't even have shoes!" You yelped out, thinking that he was just going to drag you down the the Metro bus station as you were currently.

Though, your thinking changed as his keys were forced into the lock on your apartment door. The door swung open into your dimly lit apartment building, and Ray shut the door behind him with the side of his foot. You laughed loudly as he threw you down onto the couch, you nearly cascading over the edge as you fell. Though, as you sat up in attempt to control yourself, Ray landed on the couch behind your lower back and shoved you up into a standing position.

You pouted in his direction, a smirk clearly displayed on his lips. Even though his eyes were closed, he didn’t seem to care about your protests, never even bothering to open his eyes when responding to you.

“Well, (y/n)? You and I both know that we don’t have all day to wait, stupid. Walk before I throw you in your closet too. Who knows what would happen in there.” He said, eyes remaining closed and smirk cemented onto his face. You flipped him off as you walked backwards down the hall towards your bedroom to retrieve your clothes.

Once in your closet, the internal debate of what to wear seemed to consume you as your eyes scanned everything hung on the rack. Eventually settling on the x-ray shirt and a pair of dark jeans which you believed made your ass look fantastic, you added a few slap-on bracelets before walking out of your closet. You slipped your feet into your converse then pulled them firmly on as you leaned into the wall, back slamming into it. You heard a grunt from Ray in the next room as he stood upright, hearing you walking around near the hallway. As you walked out of it, he smiled at you, his smile gleaming beneath the dim lights. You returned the smile wholeheartedly as you walked towards him. There was a tint of red on his cheeks, though you decided to not ask about that now. The pair of you walked out slowly, smiles still on your faces. Though, as the door shut, you could feel something in your left hand. Warm, perfect fit...interlocking fingers.

_Oh fuck._

 


	7. Puerto Rican Thunder

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, it's FINALLY out! Sorry about the wait, I got uber lazy and finals kicked my ass. 
> 
> I'd just like to take a second to say a HUGE thank you to ALL commenters that have been commenting on here! It seriously makes me smile so hard, you have no idea. That has been my motive to keep writing this, honest.
> 
> Regarding commenting, I am curious about something. I've been toying around with the idea of an L.A. Noire Achievement Hunter/Rooster Teeth AU, because I've been playing it alot recently and I'm obsessed. Would anyone be interested?
> 
> SECONDLY, I swear I'm not insane and I know what I'm doing with this storyline, it'll just be a bit. Trust me, darlings.

Your thoughts were running at a million miles per hour. Maybe breaking down the situation bit by bit would find the place in time that had you melting to jelly and liquid panic flowing through your veins. So what had happened?

Well, firstly, you and Ray had decided to go out to dinner. Things got playful, as they usually did, then you had noticed a tinge of red on Ray's cheeks before you left, which was peculiar. As you walked out the door, hearing the faint sound of the door closing against the frame behind you, Ray had sipped his fingers into yours, lacing them like a key to a lock: a perfect fit. That had sent worry seeping out of your pores. As the two of you walked out of the building and started walking towards the nearest bus station, your thoughts ran rampant, thinking of what this meant, and how this made you feel. Shit, what if this turned out bad? You could say one thing for certain: you didn't need more drama, especially after the money incident.

"Uh, uh...shit, sorry. What the hell was I even doing..." Ray muttered as he yanked his fingers apart from yours, face exploding to all shades of deep red. Surely your face was as well, though your thinking changed as you saw a flicker in his eyes. Sadness? Worry? Panic? You couldn't be sure. You figured you should ask, try to comfort your close friend, but there was a part of you telling you that you should just leave him be for awhile. Your face fell from concern to sadness as you looked to his face and saw his eyes forced shut, a cringe flowing through his body.

"Ray," you say, gripping his wrist with your hand, a grip tight enough for reassurance, but not too tight to show aggression. He visibly shook his head to himself and muttered something under his breath. You could feel his pulse beneath your fingers, the beat going faster and faster to your discomfort. He looked up and his eyes locked with yours, swamped with something unusual for him, though you couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was. The two of you sat down at the bus station, still unsure as to whether or not the bus was even running. That was the least of your concerns right now.

"Ray, c'mon. What's going on?" You repeat, more concern coating each word this time around. His cheeks were slightly less red now, but the look in his eyes still remained.

"Nothing. It's stupid. I.." He began, words trailing off towards the end. He broke eye contact with you almost instantly, eyes focused intently on the sidewalk instead.

"I know that's not true. Something's up. Is it about earlier?" You question, not accusing or aggression in your voice at all, only care and grace. He still didn't look you in the eyes, but continued to trying to avoid you.

"Uh, maybe?" Ray said, eyebrows raising to yet another cringe as he swallowed audibly. He then cleared his throat, preparing to speak again. Maybe he'd actually confess what was bothering him early on in the night.

Though, interruptions ensued.

"Hey guys, you do realize the bus isn't running tonight, right?" A voice asked from a car that pulled over near the curb. Well, shit.

"Yeah, thanks asshole. Kinda ruined something here, so if you'd be ever so kind as to back the fuck off, that would be fantastic." You say, snark punctuating every word that you say. You didn't have to be looking at the man in the car or interest to show how irritated you were with him, which he seemed to notice almost immediately.

"Jesus, (y/n), what's wrong with you?" The voice asked again, the tone offended and worried at the same time. Didn't you know that voice from somewhere? Why the hell did they know your name?

Okay, enough was enough. Tonight wasn't going as planned already, and then this asshole was here making things beyond creepy.

"Will you just shut the fuc-" You yell, taken up at the man in the car with daggers for a stare. Your eyes were immediately locked with Ryan's, his gaze showing worry, just like his voice. He shot you a questioning look, eyes darting back and forth between you and Ray at lightening speeds.

"Oh, hi Ryan. Uh, sorry?" You say, starting to feel bad that you were so mean to him, especially after you couldn't tell it was him.

"Nah, don't worry about it. Why the long face, Ray?" Ryan asks, his car turning off after being idle for so long. The group of you were sat on a side street anyways, so you couldn't see the harm in staying to talk for a bit.

"Hmm?" Ray asks, gaze shooting up from the sidewalk and in Ryan's direction. "Oh, yeah, uh, nothing. I'm fine. Just distracted." Ray tries to tell Ryan, which seems to fool Ryan but not you. You weren't stupid, and Ray was your best friend, of course you knew there was more than that. Although, maybe you should just lay off for the time being.

You shook your head in response, which earned you a questioning look from Ryan. Though, his face turned instantly to another expression as he began to speak.

"So, were you guys heading somewhere, or just sitting out at the bus station? If the latter is the case, do you want to die?" Ryan asks, laughter prolonging his last syllable. You smile in response, a giggle slipping through the frowned expression formed by your lips.

"Nah, we were going to go downtown to get food. It's been a rough night and I need to eat my feelings." You state with a renewed smile, a lighthearted vibe flowing between your and Ryan with each word. One of his eyebrows shot up suddenly, in which you mimicked his expression.

"I can take you guys down there if you want. I was going to go down to that huge Whole Foods down on Congress anyways. That place is fucking awesome." Ryan says, unlocking his doors to emphasize his question. You look at Ray questioningly, silently asking him if he wants to. Although it seemed like he was entranced currently, he looked up from the sidewalk again and locked eyes with you, faintly smiling at you.

"I guess so, if that's okay with you?" You tell Ryan, and he throws his hand up into a gesture to his back seat.

"Go for it."

You stand up, pulling your shirt down and dusting off your pants lightly. You extend your hand out to Ray, who was still sat down on the bench next to you. He looked up at you and hesitated slightly before taking your hand and standing up to join you. He walked swiftly ahead of you, opening the door closest to the curb for you to climb in. He ran around the backside of the car and opened the other side door, sliding in to the seat next to you. You smiled at him, which he returned wholeheartedly.

"So, do I need to drop you off at the place?" Ryan asks as he turns the parking off and slowly accelerating into the road.

You began to inhale a breath, but Ray responded instead.

"I think the place I'm thinking of is right near the Whole Foods anyways." Ray says, Ryan nodding and going silent. You looked up through the windshield, catching a look at the rear view mirror that was hanging from the ceiling of the car. When you looked again, you locked eyes with Ryan, who gave you a certain look that had a large amount of meaning behind it. Just by that one look, you could tell that he knew something was up, and you knew you'd be getting a text about it later tonight. Two seconds passed before Ryan broke eye contact with you, his eyes returning to the road. You sighed, slumping backward into the seat, head slamming softly into the headrest. Ray tore his gaze away from the window to look at you questioningly, to which you only replied with a comforting smile. At that, Ray pulled his phone out of his pocket and your eyes went out your window, watching the night time road lights streak by on the highway that was Austin-bound.

It was quite peaceful, all in all. The car vibrated lowly beneath your feet as the tires sped over the paved highway, the sound resonated all throughout the car. The sound alone was enough to send you into a thoughtful trace, numbing your mind and your body into relaxation. You hadn't realized just how tense you actually were until now, muscles crying out after being so tightly wound for so long. Thoughts buzzed through your mind, shooting from Ray to Ryan, then to other things like your bills and your constant predicament that money has caused you. You were about to close your eyes to further focus on your thoughts when the car turned roughly, a small curb slamming beneath the wheels. Yanking out your phone from your jeans pocket, you glowered at the time, disbelief crossing your gaze as you saw 20 minutes had passed. Ryan pulled into his preferred parking space in the parking garage and bringing the car to a stop. The car was turned off a second later when Ryan pulled the keys from the ignition, turning around to face the pair of you in the back seat.

"Welp, we're here. What time should we meet up later? I mean, I assume you need a ride home later, unless y'all are catching a hotel or something." You scowled at his teasing expression, showing him that you were extremely done with his bullshit. He threw his hands up in defeat, opening his car door and stepping out, arms shooting up above his head in a stretch. He groaned in pleasure, feeling his muscles tighten and relax peacefully. Ray was the next to open his door, running around to open your door as well. Though, before he could reach the door, you had it partially open. He didn't seem to mind though as he pulled the door softly, the handle falling from your grasp. He wrapped an arm around your back to help you stand, and you smiled in response. Although the two of you had quite the awkward experience earlier, you let him do this for you. From a distance it might seem like a romantic gesture, but Ray had always been there for you, doing the nicest things for you. Sometimes you would do the same for him, never questioning if it could mean something more. Were you questioning it now?

_Bad time, brain._

The two of you walked around the back of the car together, no more than an inch apart from each other. In almost one second, you were stood in front of Ryan.

"Alright, should I just call one of you when I'm ready to leave? I'm not hanging around downtown at night for longer than I have to. You idiots might think its romantic or something, but no. I'm not dying tonight, I have editing to do." Ryan states, matter of factly. You grimaced again at the word romantic, but he shoved it off.

"Okay, bye Ryan." Ray says, turning around and walking off towards the parking garage stairs. You waved a very grand wave at Ryan and ran off towards Ray, being at his side in seconds. Though, as you attempted to come to a stop, you kicked the back of Ray's converse and slipped forward, barely catching yourself on the wall in front of you. You expected a considered comment from Ray simply due to how the night seemed to be going so far, but as he burst out laughing behind you, your thinking changed.

You turned around to look directly at him, beginning to laugh yourself as you saw him keeled over himself, laughing his ass off.

"God, you're...such a fucking...dumbass!" Ray gasped out in between laughs, and you fake pouted at him and ran over to shove him. As you shoved him, he lost his balance and fell to the ground of the parking garage with a thump. As the wind sped from his lungs, he sat there, still attempting to laugh at you even though only whispered laughed were choked out from his lips. You laughed at him and with him at the same time, laughing at the fact that he was rolling around on the dirty meek garage floor, but laughing with him at the same time just because it felt good. After minutes had passed, you wiped your eyes and calmed your erratic laughter.

"Okay, now get off the fucking floor loser, and take me out to eat." You say, extending a hand out to help him stand up. He took it eagerly, yanking himself up to your level. He smiled to you genuinely, the lighthearted normal feeling finally returning to the pair of you after everything that had happened earlier. As much as you wanted to bring up what had happened, you knew that it was probably for the best that you didn't. He shoved your shoulder lightly as you walked down the stairs towards the outside world. Once you had shoved the door to the parking garage open, you paused to wait for Ray, and continued walking once he fell into step right beside you. You had a slight skip in your step, which Ray had noticed almost immediately, responding by linking your arms together and skipping sporadically down the sidewalk together. You laughed loudly, receiving some looks from people around you, though you didn't care right now.

Ray really had been right, the place he was thinking of was quite close to the Whole Foods, as it was just across a small side street from the large store. As you approached the little burger joint on a street corner, Ray darted ahead of you to yank the door open. He held it for you as you walked through, smiling and telling him thank you. Once inside the door, the smell of burgers and fries filled your nostrils. Ray chose a table for the pair of you to sit at, and you practically threw yourself into the booth. Within seconds, you had a menu in your hands and your eyes were frantically skimming the object, mouth watering at practically everything you saw. Ray set his menu down after about 30 seconds of looking at it, seeming content in his knowledge of what he wanted to eat. After what seemed like an hour, you decided on a simple cheeseburger and fries. As you close the menu, your eyes lock onto a large vanilla shake pictured on the back. You were about to place that onto your order, but decided against it as you were reminded that you weren't the one paying.

As a waitress came by your table, she greeted the both of you, seeming to show a particular interest in Ray. You had seen her earlier when you had walked in, she seemed quite dejected, but she was here now, flipping her hair flirtatiously and looking at him with googly eyes. Though, Ray didn't seem to pay any mind to her, rattling off his order without looking her in the eyes.

Once Ray stopped naming off his order, punctuating it with his soda of choice, he paused, looking at the menu once more. You couldn’t figure out if he was finished ordering or not, so you mentally prepared yourself to order your food next. Though, as you breathed in to allow the words to leave your lips, your order of choice flew from Ray’s instead, him nailing your simple order to a tee. The waitress was frantically scribbling down everything on her little pad, mood seeming to have returned to dejected once more, probably assuming you and Ray were together after he had just ordered for you. After she had finished writing, she nodded quickly, turning on her heel and sulked away. You were about to begin talking to Ray when he yelled out.

“Hey, miss?” He asked politely, addressing the waitress who was walking away. She turned abruptly, a hopeful look in her eyes.

“Yes?” she asked, slight hope and desperation hidden by the smallest word.

“Can we get a large vanilla shake with that as well?” Ray asked, her face falling once more as she wrote down the new addition quietly. She nodded solemnly and began walking the other way, going to place the order in. You giggled once, causing Ray to look at you questioningly.

“What are you laughing at, (y/n)?” he asks, a smile appearing on his lips.

“Dude, she was so into you.” You say, laughing at the end. He shaked his head, laughing as well.

“The girl I want to pay attention to is in this room, but it’s not her.” He said simply, glancing around the restaurant before his eyes darted back to you, a caring smile on his face. You being you looked around the restaurant frantically, looking for this mystery woman. It wasn’t until you felt Ray’s hand on top of yours that you stopped.

“Seriously, (y/n)? You’re such a dumbass.” Ray says lightheartedly, and you kick him lightly under the table. He grimaces briefly, but returns the small kick back lovingly. You stick your tongue out at him, which causes him to only smile wider.

“You were looking around, I had to know. Did she just leave, or what?” You ask, your head whipping around to look behind you once more. His hand squeezed yours again, causing you to look at him one more time, but this time with utter confusion.

“For fucks sake, its you (y/n).” Ray says, eyes rolling. “I don’t see why that’s so hard to understand.”

You were taken aback, jaw falling slightly agape. Ray continued to stare at you, not bothering to move his eyes away from yours. Your eyes roamed his face, looking over all of his features, then they moved to the table beneath your fingers, and finally to your fingers which were now twined with his. They seemed to fit nearly perfectly, like pieces falling into place. Though, something still didn’t feel right. You saw his fingers twitch nervously, noticing his eyebrows raise in your peripheral vision. You felt your muscles begin to constrict, the pressure building in your body. You drew your hand away sharply, clearing your throat and excusing yourself from the booth.

“I’m gonna...go to the bathroom.” You mumble, barely coherent from a foot away. Ray seemed to understand, as he drew his hand away from the tabletop and back to his lap, nodding silently. You walked towards the bathroom quickly, nearly bumping into your waitress who was currently leaning up against the wall near the bathrooms. She made a soft sound of protest, but immediately the sound of her voice was cut off as you nearly slammed the door to the bathroom. You gripped the lock roughly as you turned it, and a loud clicking sound echoed through the small room. You ran to the counter, bracing yourself up by your hands on the cold surface. You looked up into the mirror into your eyes, which were now glazed with panic. You knew that you were having a small panic attack, but you refuse to accept it. Maybe just sitting here for a little while will help you calm down.

After you sat yourself down on the cool floor, your thoughts began to surface from the fog, making some so much more clear.

Answers were what you wanted, what you needed.

After isolating yourself for what seemed like years, you stood up off of the floor and walked towards the bathroom door, unlocking it swiftly. You ignored the dagger stare coming from another woman who had most likely needed to use the restroom while you were in there breaking down. No more breakdowns now. No turning back. All you wanted was answers.

You walked towards the table, chest slightly puffed out and hands shaky. Words of encouragement whispered inside of your thoughts as you got closer and closer to the table, and soon enough you were so close that you could sit in the booth right next to Ray. So you did. He jumped in surprise, but his rigid body softened once he made eye contact with you. You smiled confidently, blinking your eyes twice. Next to you, Ray smiled and laughed lightly.

“Well, nice to see you too. I was starting to get worried, you were gone awhile.” He says, nudging your shoulder slightly. You scowled jokingly and shoved him back, earning a larger smile from him. You were about to comment on something when the waitress made a return to your table with your drinks, as well as your food. She evaded all eye contact as she set the items down in front of you and Ray, walking away swiftly after everything was set onto the surface. Ray wasted no time digging into his burger, an exaggerated moan escaping his lips in enjoyment. You giggled as you looked over at his face, a piece of lettuce stuck to the stubble on the left side of his face. He gave you a questioning look by raising his eyebrows, eventually swallowing the bits of his burger as your laughter intensified. You pointed at his face as your head lolled back in laughter. He scowled heavily in response, unseen by you, and reached to grab a fry from the basket. He eagerly dunked it in the vanilla shake and smashed it into the right side of your face. The fry immediately fell down, leaving cold ice cream pooled and running down your face and a hot french fry in your shirt. You looked at him in anger, never breaking eye contact as you grabbed the fry and pelted him with it.

“Fuckin’ fight me, Ray.” You say, arms in the air.

“Oh yeah? I don’t think you can handle the Puerto Rican Thunder!” Ray yelps, leaning towards you suggestively. You narrow your eyes as he continues to stare.

“Try me, loser.” You sneer, a smirk tugging at your lips, arms still raised.

“Fine!” Ray yelps, and within seconds his lips crash against yours, a powerful force behind them. Your back tightened, pulling you even further upright. If Ray’s arms hadn’t been currently wrapped around your midsection, your lips would have parted and awkwardness would have ensued, considering you still hadn’t kissed back, lips firm as stone. Though, as a mere second passed, your brain clicked, you finally finding the ability to move. You brought your arms down from their ‘Fight Me’ position and wrapped them around his neck, finally beginning to kiss back.

It all seemed oddly too perfect. His lips fit perfectly with yours, both of you moving in perfect sync with one another too a tee. Yet another puzzle piece falling into place. What was happening?

_He’s my best friend…_

The two of you pulled away at the same time, both gasping for air and breaths shaky.

“Errm….I-uh…” Ray says, one hand going up to scratch the back of his head nervously. You ran a hard hand through your hair, chuckling nervously.

_Guess I found my answers..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figured that I'd put this here just for shits and giggles to see how over the top I am: (pulled from google docs)
> 
> Counts Document  
> Pages 36  
> Words 21628  
> Characters (no spaces) 95522  
> Characters (with spaces) 117498


	8. Outcomes of Stupidity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this chapter was both fun and painful to write. To say the least, be warned that there are possibly some triggers in this chapter, and you are welcome to skip over them (CHECK THE END NOTES IF YOU'RE WORRIED ABOUT TRIGGERS BUT THERE ARE SPOILERS THERE) but the scene is a majority of the writing and vital to the plot. 
> 
> In other news, I started this and finished it all in a day! I only got distracted by Mad Men twice, yay.

“Ray-”

“(y/n)-”

You both chuckle awkwardly and Ray gestures for you to talk first. You shake your head lightly, a smile toying at your lips.

“I know this might sound weird...but…”he says, voice falling off as he tries to convey his message. “we can’t be together.”

As the last word fell from his lips, he looked up into your eyes, his own eyes swamped with sadness and embarrassment. He watched your facial expressions intently as you stared back at him, thoughts running rampant inside your mind.

“Ray,” you start, voice empathetic and understanding, but shaky as you were still trying to calm yourself down from the previous incident. “I know that.”

Once you said those three simple words, his eyes opened widely and his jaw fell slightly agape. Although, within seconds he had his mouth closed and his eyes twinkling with laughter once again. He smiled lightly, a thankful tinge to his expression.

“I would imagine that's what it would feel like to kiss my brother.” You say, laughing at the end of your sentence. Who would even want to know what that felt like?

“Oh my god, yes, thank you, (y/n). I mean, don’t get me wrong, I really did want to kiss you, and I do have feelings for you, but I guess it’s just not meant to be in that way. It’s nice to finally know that.” He states, leaning in towards you and wrapping his arm around you. You giggled slightly, nodding as you picked up your burger off of the table. You bit out a huge bite, replicating Ray’s previous moan of pleasure to a tee. He laughed at you, then proceeded to eat his own burger, attempting to do so with only one hand. You were going to tell him not to try to only eat with one hand, but he seemed set on keeping at least one arm around you. So, you decided to join in. One of your hands grasped the burger tightly as you took your opposite arm and slew it over Ray’s shoulders. He laughed through his nose due to the fact that his mouth was full of the orgasmic burger. Within minutes, the pair of you had finished your burgers and were sat munching on the fries of perfection.

“Damn, nice food choice there, Ray. I haven’t had food that good in forever.” You say, stuffing another fry into your mouth.

“I’d wanted to come back here at some point, and I instantly jumped on the chance to bring you here. I knew you would love it, I seem to have a knack at knowing what you’ll like.” He says playfully, slight suggestiveness in his voice at the end. You nudged him with your shoulder quickly as you swallowed the last fry on your plate.

“I might also have a knack at knowing what you like, Ray. I can say that because I know that I’m not on that list.” You say, taking a swig of your drink to wash everything down and to soothe your throat. He pouted, his bottom lip becoming far more visible than normal.

“Oh come on, (y/n), you know it’s not like that. It’s just…”

“Ray, I know. I’m just messing with you.”

“Rude.” He says, pushing his plate to the other side of the table and reaching for the milkshake in the center of the table. The fine chiseled glass was coated with a thin layer of condensation, cool to the touch. Two bendy straws stuck out of the top of the shake, one pointed towards you and the other towards Ray. “Care to join me on this milky adventure?” He says, wiggling his eyebrows at you as he took the tip of the straw in his mouth.

“Gross.” You say, your better judgement telling you what he was implying. Though, who cares, this milkshake looked fucking fantastic, and Ray had already drained the substance quite a bit. You began sipping forcefully at the other end, a silent challenge at the far back of your brain. The challenge must have been accepted as Ray began to drink faster as well, the two of you staring intently into each others eyes and never pulling your mouths off your straws. It was only two minutes until the cup was nearly empty, only a small centimeter remaining. Ray was poking the small amount with his straw in an attempt to get the remaining amount. Though, he was gracefully out smarted as you took the glass from the table and tipped the glass back, claiming the remaining amount with a large gulp.

“Bitch.” Ray says, sticking his tongue out at you, you smiling victoriously.

“Dick.” You say, rebuttal from the two of you sharp as knives. Playful knives?

“Wow,” Ray starts, a hand covering his ‘hurt’ heart. “maybe I should make you pay then.”

You hug him in response, which seemed to always be your way of apologizing around him. He laughs slightly, kissing the top of your head lightly as he reached for his wallet. Placing his amount in cash on the table, he took one more sip of his soda and unwrapped his arm from around your shoulders. You pulled away as well, knowing that since he payed in cash you didn’t have to wait for the waitress to come back to the table. Standing up slowly, you stretched your arms above your head, your shoulders popping in protest. You walked towards the door slowly, waiting for Ray to rejoin you at your side. Just as you reached the door, an arm darted from behind you, opening the door for you. You walked from the restaurant, shuddering as the cold touched your skin. You turned towards the door, watching as Ray slipped out and fell into the space directly next to you. You were about to begin walking, but you paused as you felt the warmth of a soft fabric embrace you.

“I figured you'd be cold. Austin tends to get some very cold nights around this time of the year.” He says as your fingers close around the zipper of the hoodie. You zip it up quickly, inhaling deeply as his scent filled your nostrils to the brim. You smiled contently as he began walking forward, back towards Ryan’s car. You casually looped your arm around his as you walked, leaning on his shoulder. He chuckled lightly, white smoke appearing from his nostrils in the cold air. Though, he didn’t seem to mind. The pair of you walked slowly back to the parking garage where you had been dropped off originally. However, slow wasn’t really your forte.

“Hey Ray?”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll race you back to the car!” You yell, taking off quickly. As you ran, the zipper of Ray’s hoodie jingled softly against your chest. With a soft mutter of ‘fucking hell’, Ray ran after you, quickly gaining on you. As you approached the road just before the parking garage, you saw the orange hand illuminated with a descending countdown next to it, but you took no mind to it, confident that you had enough time to cross the street before the light illuminated green. Turning your head to look behind you, still running forward, you teased Ray by sticking your tongue out at him. At first, his expression was lighthearted and joyous, but quickly changed to something else within a millisecond.

You watched as his mouth fell open, something escaping his lips as he reached his arm forward towards you. You looked at him in confusion momentarily, but your expression faded as you felt a sharp pain explode on your left side of your body. Your head whipped forward, only to come into contact with the dark and gritty asphalt, no more than a foot from your gaze. You cringed back, preparing for impact, and once you did, everything faded to black, numbness consuming you.

The only thing to be heard was Ray’s yelling, which couldn’t be deciphered by your mind.

All of your thoughts faded away as the darkness consumed you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Your head pounded, threatening the threshold of your skull as the thumping pounded the sides of the bone. All that was heard around you was beeping, constant beeping. Yelling, shouts of nonsense surrounding your unresponsive mind. Moving, you were moving. Dullness, there was pain, but in the minimum. Your eyes opened a crack, only to be met with the blur of the world, fluorescent lighting cascading by, faces of the unknown hovering above you. Those were the sources of the yelling. Your mouth, you wanted it to move but you couldn’t. You let out a breath for all the words you simply couldn’t say.

_Ray._

The lights turned to darkness. The yelling, a soft white noise. Your newly found consciousness,

Gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_Beep, Beep, Beep._

Fucking hell, that sound was annoying as dicks.

Dark, it was dark. Why was it so dark? You squeezed your eyes, noticing that they were closed. You struggled to open your eyes, but were in shock when you finally managed to get them open. It was still dark, the only things in sight to illuminate the darkened room was the dim lamp next to your bed and the monitor beeping next to you. The line moved up and down steadily, not showing any signs of faltering. You knew in the back of your mind where you were, but you didn’t want to come to terms with it.

You looked down to your right, the IV stuck into your arm, but unfelt. Looking further down your right arm, you were met with Ray’s hand clasped tightly with yours, grasp loose but firm as his chest rose and fell with relaxation. You surveyed his face with your struggling eyes, running your eyes over every inch of his face. He looked exhausted, the bags under his eyes a dark purple and swollen. He had been crying, that was obvious even with his eyes closed. His hair was disheveled, some parts poking up in every direction and others matted down with grease. How many days had it been since he’s showered?

Upon even further inspection, you noticed that he was wearing the exact same clothes that he had been wearing before. When was the last time you remembered those clothes? It was recently...was it not? The chair he was sat in was barely padded, the seat worn after presumably years of wear and tear. Upon more observation, you saw the hoodie strewn over the back of a chair, a hole worn into the side and blood dried on the outside edges. You took a deep breath as you yawned, hands tightening. You removed your hand from Ray’s as you began coughing, wind heaving in and out of your lungs with difficulty. Once you had stopped hacking, you took your right hand to run it through Ray’s hair, returning it back to its well groomed state as well as you possibly could. He stirred quietly, a soft whimper escaping his lips as he moved. His eyes opened quickly to look at you, and then closed again, but were wide open soon after when he did a double take.

“Holy fuck, you’re awake.” He said, exasperation in his voice. He looked exhausted and relieved at the same time, which made your heart fall.

“Yeah…” You attempt to talk, heaving in an attempt to clear the blockage in your throat. Your muscles protested harshly, sending you into a cringing and coughing fit. Ray looked at you concerned, hand on the ‘call nurse’ button near your bed. You simply waved him off as you began to calm down slowly. “Yeah, I’m awake.”

“You don’t have to talk if it hurts.”

“No, no, it’s alright. I needed to ask something anyway.”

“How long have you been awake?”

“Not long.” You say, voice trailing away as you scope your eyes around the room once more. “I was just looking around.”

“Do you know where you are?” He asks, worry coating every word he says.

“Yeah, dumbass, I know where I am.” You say with a playful smile. His face seemed to lighten as you said the words, him reaching back for your hand and squeezing lightly, as if you were made of glass. Though, this time, when you looked at your hand, you saw the bandages coating your hand all over, a brace on your index finger.

“....What happened…?” You ask, tears gathering behind your eyelids while your voice faltered and wavered. He took a deep shaky breath and placed his other hand on top of your right one as well, then began speaking.

“When we...when we were walking around in downtown Austin, you were running towards a parking garage. As you ran, you were looking back at me and didn’t see that the crossing signal said not to cross.” He paused, a hand running through his hair, but then returning back to yours. “You kept running, never once looking back in front of you. A car...it wasn’t watching. All the driver saw was the light turn green, and within a millisecond, you were in front of him...You hit the car hard, and the force sent you skidding across the pavement. I tried to stop the car...to stop you...but it didn’t work. I dialled 911 as fast as I could, but it almost wasn’t fast enough. You…” he paused again, a single tear cascading down his cheek, “You fell unconscious almost instantly and when the paramedics arrived they couldn’t get you to respond. You also lost a lot of blood, and they almost couldn’t find a match to give you a transfusion.”

“Oh.” You said simply, eyes falling to rest on the pure white sheets covering your legs. Ray spoke up again, voice only a mere whisper.

“Luckily I was there.” He said quietly, extending his right arm out. As you looked over his arm, you saw the bright pink bandage wrapped around the crevice of his elbow. It took you a minute, but as you realized what had happened, you began to tear up. Tears fell from your eyes nearly uncontrollably, but they fell silently. You looked from his arm back up to his teary eyes and just stared for a few seconds. Your mouth fell agape, a pitiful attempt for words, but it was to no avail. Though, you were very surprised as he smiled slightly, chuckling slightly. “I requested pink you know. I mean, breast cancer awareness, right?”

You smiled at him, laughing along with him. Breathing was hard and taxing, but laughing seemed to be somewhat okay, at least. Your face fell as you realised something else.

“What’s wrong with me?” You questioned, and his face fell again as he saw your worry and fear. “Why am I here? How many days has it been?”

“Hey, woah there speedster, calm down. It’s been about 4 days. You were out for awhile. Some days you would seem like you were awake, but you would immediately fall back unconscious. That’s why I’m so shocked that you're still awake and talking to me now, unless I’ve gotten so tired I’m hallucinating. I haven’t gone home or slept at all while you’ve been here, so sorry if I’m a little bit insane. By the way, hospital food? Negative, ugh.” You laughed as he gagged, enunciating the gag for effect.

“As for what’s wrong with you,” he continued, “not as much as you might think. You have some bruised ribs and definitely some road burn. You have a slightly sprained ankle and a hurt index finger, but thats the worst of your injuries. I think the worst thing you have to deal with is the fact that I will be your nurse when we can finally get the fuck out of here.” He said, smiling at you brightly. You giggled and returned the smile, very thankful that nothing was seriously wrong. The two of you were about to continue your conversation when a bright and jovial woman with red hair walked into the room.

“Oh! Hello there, Miss (last/n). How’re you feeling?” She asks, reaching to grab her clipboard from the end of the bed. She smiled brightly at you, her smile and her eyes gleaming in the dimly lit room.

“About as alright as I can be, I suppose. My chest hurts when I breathe, and it’s kinda hard to get air, but I’m alright.” You say, smiling up at her.

“Well, you do have bruised ribs, so it’ll be that way for a little bit sadly. Though, you’re very lucky that you’ll have Ray here to take care of you when we release you! He’s been next to you the entire time you’ve been here. He refused to leave your side for more than a minute.What a nice man.” She said simply, scribbling a few notes down onto a paper and placing the clipboard back at the end of the bed. “My oh my, it’s quite early.” She said, using one of her hands to cover her mouth as she yawned.

“It’s 2 A.M.” Ray whispered into your ear as you looked around questioningly. You nodded knowingly, looking back up at the doctor.

“Well, once we get you looked at by one of our nurses, I say you’re set to go on home with Ray here. We won’t release you until morning, of course, but I just thought you’d like to know that I cleared you for release. I actually cleared you yesterday, but we wanted to let you get some bedrest. Insurance is covering most of your visit, surprisingly. Your policy seems sublime, and your bill shouldn’t be too much of a shock to the system.”

“Well, that’s very good to hear.” You say, relieved that money wasn’t posing too big of an issue.

“Alrighty, I will leave you to your rest, or to give you some time to talk with Ray here. We’ll get you checked over and handed a prescription by a nurse at around 7, and we’ll hopefully have you released by 7:30 at the latest. Maybe Ray here could go run back to your apartment to grab some clothing for you? Your old clothes definitely weren't salvageable, my apologies.”

Ray nodded next to you, and the doctor smiled once more and walked out with a nod of her head. As she walked out, Ray turned towards you and looked you over, a sad look in his eyes.

“Ray, I’ll be fine.”

“I know that...I just feel bad. I feel like I could've stopped it….”

“Ray, no. It was me that was a dumbass and ran out into traffic. So shut up.”

“But-”

“No. Now, did you want a ride back over to our complex? I can call someone to get you a ride, I’d rather you not take public transport right now. It’s early and Austin can be slightly sketchy. Plus we are way too far to walk, if I know where we are. I assume we’re downtown?” He nodded quietly and cleared his throat.

“I mean, I guess I could get a ride...if anyone’s up with early.”

“Oh believe me Ray, I can get you a ride.” You gestured over to an end table near Ray for your phone, and flicked it open quickly, disregarding all the messages on the lock screen. You pulled up the number you were scavenging for, smiling contentedly as the other line began to ring. You were about to turn to speak to Ray when the person on the other end of the line picked up suddenly, a growl or disapproval traveling through the line clear as day.

“What do you need, it’s fucking early.”

“Hi Geoff!” You said perkily, and laughed as you heard the rapid inhale of breath on the opposite end of the phone.

“Holy shit, (y/n)?! You’re awake!”

“Yep, sure am. Hey, listen, I know you’ve probably been worried sick or whatever, but I need a favor.”

You heard Geoff laugh on the other end of the line. “Sure, what’cha need?”

“Can you come and get Ray and take him to grab me some clothes for tomorrow morning? They’re releasing me tomorrow and I don’t have any clothes here. Apparently my other ones were destroyed.”

“Ugh, fine. I’d say you owe me, but no. I can be over there in a few minutes, tell him to be ready, I don’t want to deal with the bitch in the waiting room again. She’s fucking rude.”

“Anything for you, Geoff.”

He laughed lightly and hung up quickly, and you threw your phone down onto your legs.

“Geoff’ll be here in a few minutes. He said to wait outside for him, because he doesn't like the bird at the front desk.”

“Oh yeah, she was talking smack last time apparently.”

“You should probably be ready to leave soon then.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” He stood up slowly, his back popping in protest. He sauntered slowly towards the door, but looked back at you softly.

“You sure you’ll be okay for a little bit?”

“Yeah I’ll be fine. I’ve always been fine, have I not?”

He chuckled, walking back over to you and leaning down next to you.

“I hope so.” He kissed your head and stood, walking towards the door quickly. He waved slowly at you as he walked out, never taking his eyes off of you.

“Hey Ray?”

He poked his head back in, eyebrows up in question.

“Don’t bring me something ugly. I’ll kill you.”

“Got it, captain.”

You smiled contentedly as you watched him walk out, a smile on his face. You chuckled once as you shut your eyes, easily falling back into a restful sleep within seconds.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You awoke to the hustle and bustle of the hospital, nurses walking in and out of your room, and the sunlight of early morning Austin flowing in from the open window and onto your face, much to your disapproval. You sat up quietly, noticing that Ray was back in his chair next to your bed, dressed in fresh clothes and back to semi-cleanly shaven. Geoff must’ve made him clean up a tad. You smiled brightly as a bubbly nurse walked into the room, reaching for the famous clipboard at the end of the bed.

“How’re you feeling today, (y/n)?” She asked cheerfully, caring and wonderment in her voice.

“Quite alright, given the circumstances.”

“I would assume that the doctor gave you the news of your release when you woke up last night?” She asked, and continued talking as you nodded. “Alright, well how about you go ahead and get changed in the restroom right over there while I fill out your papers and prescription. I’ll wake up this sleepy head and tell him about the medication while you’re gone.” You smiled, throwing your sheets off of your legs and standing up. You felt a wave of relief cross over you as you saw that they had already taken off all of the wires, claiming you free from the chains that bound you. Of course, you had to limp slightly due to your ankle, but it wasn’t bad enough for you to need crutches. You grabbed the pile of clothes from next to Ray and walked off towards the restroom.

Changing was quite the challenge, and every time you looked anywhere that was coated with gauze due to the road rash you grimaced, the thoughts all unpleasant. Once you had completely changed out of your awful gown, you walked out of the room with confidence, happy that you didn’t look as sickly and hopeless anymore. As you walked into the room, you saw Ray nodding as the nurse talked on about the pain meds that she was giving you, and how if anything else came up that he should bring you straight back. He nodded quickly and knowingly as she put the clipboard back and walked out of the room, making a quick remark to another nurse as she did so.

You gestured to Ray as you walked out the door towards the front desk, on your way to discuss financial matters with the woman at the front desk. You handed her your card and she swiped it, the money instantly being ripped from your account. You were sure that she had told you the amount that was due, but your mind had probably blocked it out. You thanked her politely as she handed your card back and wished you to have a nice day in a bland voice. You and Ray walked outside, your arm linked with his and leaning on him for support. As you stepped out into the sunlight, you were met face to face with Geoff, who was leaning on the side of his car. You hugged him as tightly as you could manage once you had reached him, ignoring your body’s protests. Ray held the car door open for you as you got in, and once you were in, you snuggled up against him in the back seat.

Not many words were said on the drive back to your home, but smiles and a few small talk comments were thrown back and forth throughout the car. Once Geoff had pulled up in front of your apartment, he said a swift goodbye and mentioned for you to call him if you needed anything. You nodded him off and laughed as Ray scooped you up into his arms to carry you up the stairs bridal style. Given everything that had happened recently, you were in a great mood. Everything seemed to be looking up for you. Though, as Ray walked up the stairs and onto the landing, you were met face to face with the big, bright yellow sign on your door, staring you down. Bold letters filled the page, a date starting up at you clear as day. Along with two other words

**Eviction Notice**

**15 Days**

“No...no no no no.” was all that you could manage to say as Ray carried you into his apartment and shut the door, the sign out of sight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGERS:  
> ~Mentions of car crashes  
> ~Mentions of blood  
> ~Hospitals, Description of Hospitals
> 
> I actually teared up while writing this once or twice. As much as I liked writing all the playful rebuttal, I got so sad a few times. Stay tuned, more to come soon. IT'LL GET HAPPY I PROMISE.


	9. With Hints of Hot Action Brings Coffee

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An actual chapter! Woo!

Friends are great, but not when you just want to sleep.

You were currently laying on Ray’s couch, having dozed off into sleep yet again after eating a lazy lunch with Ray. The smell of pizza filled the living room, but after a few days you got used to the all too familiar smell. You had been trying to sleep for about an hour now, listening to the small clicks of Ray’s controller as he played another game he had just bought recently and the occasional curse that slipped from his lips when something didn’t go as expected. Eventually you had gotten to the point of half asleep, but still painfully half aware of your surroundings. Though, as you could feel yourself slipping away from real life and into your relaxed dream world, you heard a knock at the door. Well, rather, a pounding at the door.

You flinched slightly at the sound and grabbed a pillow you had discarded previously from its spot on the floor and threw it over your face in an attempt to block out the sound, and you heard Ray chuckle sympathetically as he sauntered over to the door. Clearly whoever was there was very impatient, as the pounding had resumed yet again even after only 5 seconds at most. You squeezed your eyes shut and tried to focus on sleep once more, but a voice caught your attention instead.

“Ray! Thank God, took your sweet ass time, didn’t you asshole.” The voice said, snark and impatience lacing every word.

“Shh! Christ, keep your fucking voice down, will you. Also, how about next time you try to not bang my door down, yeah?” Ray whispered sharply, his tone like a knife. “What do you need?”

“Oh, uh…” You strained your ears more to try to hear the whispered words, hardly able to hear the conversation underneath your pillow while you were still faking sleep. “I just heard something at the office earlier, like, why you weren’t at the office and I wanted to know if it was just a shitty rumor or not.” the voice said, curious. Ray sighed and paused, most likely pondering the words that he had said, and what he was going to say in response.

“Well, I guess it depends on what you heard.”

“I heard Geoff’s little pet bitch was in the hospital two nights ago-”

“Hey, rude! Dick.”

“Sorry, _(y/n)_ was in the hospital two nights ago, and that you happened to be the ever so lucky Nurse Narvaez that got to take care of her.” As the man punctuated his sentence, his tone rose in volume once more, only to be shushed by Ray again.

“Dude, shut up. Yes, I get to take care of her and she’s also sleeping, so do you wanna take it down a notch? Plus, don’t make it sound like it’s forced that I’m taking care of her, I chose to, and I’m loving every minute of it.” Ray said proudly, yet reprimanding the other man at the same time.

“Jesus, just fuck already.”

“Michael!”

“Ray.”

“Whatever.”

“If only you could see yourself, especially because your face is almost as red as your oh so beloved flowers.”

“Shut up!” Ray said muffledly, and you presumed that Ray had his face buried into his hands. You heard Michael laugh at that as well, the sound filling the room. The sound then made you smile, and you repressed the urge to laugh with him. Though, as a comment toyed at the end of your tongue, you couldn’t help yourself.

“Jesus, just _fuck already_!” You say from under the pillow, voice raised to make sure the words reached the mens’ ears.

“Hey!” The two men yelled in unison, and Michael stopped laughing abruptly. You threw the pillow off of your face and off to the side of the couch again, returning it back to where it was not even five minutes ago. You sat up with effort, groaning at the discomfort that shot through your body as you did so. Ray’s eyes immediately shot over to you, them filled with concern and urgency, but you waved a hand at him to put his somewhat at ease. Once on your feet, you put your hands on your hips.

“I don’t need you helping me to the bathroom, mister nurse. Just stay here and talk to your boyfriend.” Michael scowled at you, no playfulness in his eyes. You could feel the burn in your chest from your tinged feelings, but you refused to let it show as you flashed a smile at Michael, and then one at Ray. Although, unlike the other, Ray actually returned the smile.

You slowly began to walk towards the bathroom, when you heard a voice call out and catch your attention.

“Spend any more than 5 minutes in there and I’m coming to rescue you!”

You waved a hand behind you once again in dismissal, and you heard him chuckle. You heard Michael sigh briefly as you walked away, and you shut the door loudly behind you. You heard the front door shut as well when the heavy door struck the frame. You heard the fridge get opened and wondered briefly if Michael had left, but you discarded the thought almost instantly when you heard both men mumble something to each other and Michael’s laugh filled the room up once again. You smiled briefly, letting out a breathless laugh in response, but all your expression faded as you locked eyes with yourself in the mirror.

For the first time since you had been at Ray’s after the accident, you looked at your face and assessed the marks. For what had happened, it actually wasn’t that bad, a few tiny scratches and a slightly larger one above your right eyebrow. As you stared into the mirror, your mind wandered off to other places, thoughts overwhelming you. Though, you were only away from the real world for a moment before you were brought back by a muffled sound that came through the cracks of the door.

“Hey Ray-”

“Don’t. You don’t need to explain why you’re here, it’s pretty fucking obvious.”

“No,” Michael paused, sighed, and then continued. “I wanted to ask you something.”

“Oh.” You moved closer to the door. “Ask away, I guess.”

“I...I dunno…” Michael spoke hesitantly, as if he was unsure of his words. “I don’t want you to get mad or anything, well, as if I care, but-”

“Michael! Just shut up and ask it already.”

“Are you two together?”

You heard Ray gasp slightly, and you swallowed harshly and nervously as well. The two of you had never really talked about what that night had meant, due to the fact that you were still pretty sensitive about the accident, let alone everything else that had you deathly confused.

“We’re not official or anything, if thats what you’re asking.” Ray said quickly and seriously, and you let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding. It wasn’t that you were nervous about anyone knowing about you and Ray, but...you weren’t quite sure what it was. It wasn’t like you cared what Michael thought, right? Hell, he had given you the death glare when all you had done was tell a joke. Who cared what he thought?

“Oh. I thought you were.”

“Nope. Why do you ask?” Ray questioned, taking his eyes off of the screen momentarily to lock eyes with Michael. You leaned into the door even closer, tightly pressing your body to it to hear the conversation better. The door creaked, but you were more interested in what was to be said.

“I was just wondering if it’d be alright if-”

“SHIT!” You yelled out as the door gave way, sending you tumbling out into the hallway making quite an entrance. Both heads spun around, but for different reasons. Within the second, Ray shot up and was next to you, eyes worried and voice concerned. You brushed it off and looked over at Michael while Ray examined the damage and any possible injuries. Although, when you looked back at Michael, he had turned back to the screen, but was on his phone instead. Nice to know he cared. The only reason he probably even looked back in the first place was to see what had ever so rudely disturbed him.

You stood up with the help of Ray and brushed off your pyjama bottoms and straightened out your tank top.

“Well, that was an entrance. You could say that you came in with a bang!” Ray said cheerily, content now that you seemed fine despite the fact that the bathroom door had come completely off of its hinges and was on the floor, a gaping hole in the wall next to it.

“It was more of a thud really.” You say awkwardly, noticing with distaste that Michael was still paying no attention to you.

“Hah, I guess so. Either way, it was both awfully traumatizing and hilarious at the same time. Oh, and loud.” Ray said, a hand running from your shoulder to midway down your back. You had to admit, his touch was very comforting, but you were still irritated. What had you done to deserve being ignored?

Absolutely nothing as far as you were concerned.

“Obviously not loud enough.” You say, voice raised and stern. Your eyes bored holes into Michael’s head as you walked over to him, never breaking your line of sight. You continued to stare at him once you were directly in front of him, but he never broke eye contact with his phone.

“Hey, uh, Mi-”

“Yes, Ray?”

“Oh. Uhmm, are you staying for dinner, or..?” Ray asked awkwardly, though the tension released from his tone as you moved away from Michael to sit on a barstool at the counter near the kitchen.

“Nah, I’m sure I can make up plans to get away from this mess.” Michael said as he stood up, not looking anywhere but at Ray.

“Well you can-”

“Oh my, look at the time, it’s half past ‘I want to fucking leave’! I must go, or I will be late.” Michael exaggerated every syllable as he walked towards the door, still never making eye contact with you as he looked around. Now, you were fuming, hands balled up as tightly as possible and eyes once again boring holes into the back of his skull.

“Alright, I’ll see you around then. Bye, Michael.”

“Yeah, bye Ray.”

“Bye.” You say bitterly, standing up as you did so. Though, Michael still ignored you, walking out the door and shutting it loudly behind him.

“Yeesh, you alright, (y/n)?”

“Wait here.” You say commandingly as you stormed towards the door, yanking it open and not bothering to close it as you sprinted down the stairs. You saw Michael walking across the lot to the car port where his car was, and you picked up your pace to get yourself down onto the main level quickly.

“Hey, Michael!” You yell, loud enough for him to hear. He still never turned around. He approached his car still, never paying you the smallest thought.

“Do you know how to respond to someone when they’re talking to you?!” You ask, voice elevating with anger after each word. Still, nothing. You sighed angrily as Michael stepped into his car and shut the door, turning up the stereo slightly. You stood behind his car as he attempted to back out, but he still didn’t turn around. You flashed both of your middle fingers through his back windshield in a perfect spot so that he could see, but he still didn’t care.

Oh, this means war.

You stepped aside as he began backing out, but you still stood there in rage.

“How loud do I need to be to get your fucking attention, because I can be PRETTY FUCKING LOUD TOO, ASSHOLE!” You yelled, and watched in anguish as he drove away, out the apartment gates and away from you and the cloud of rage you were engulfed in. You groaned loudly and stomped off back upstairs. As you walked, a dog barked at you through an open window, but you just told it to shut the fuck up as you went up another level. You stormed through the still open door and slammed it shut, throwing your body face down onto the couch. You screamed into your pillow as a tear escaped your eye, but you didn’t care. You felt Ray sit down next to you, and his hands stroked your hair lovingly. It calmed you almost instantly, and within seconds you were upright in Ray’s arms, head nestled into the crook of his neck, crying for who knows why. Who cared if Michael didn’t pay attention to you? No one did! You sure didn’t.

You sobbed loudly as Ray rubbed your back comfortingly, attempting to soothe whatever was happening.

That was the thing, you did care, and you cared a fucking lot.

\--------------------------------------------------------------

“How many times do I have to tell you that you don’t have to do this, (y/n)?” Ray asked you as he leaned on the doorframe to the bathroom, which had eventually become some obscurely colored curtain rather than the actual door that you had knocked over a week ago. The two of you had just wanted to use it until Ray got the chance to put the door back up, but it still remained down due to the lack of motivation from the both of you. You had offered to put it back up once or twice since you were the one to knock it down in the first place, but he denied every time. Even though you were finally able to walk around without much problem besides the brace on your foot and ankle, Ray still refused to let you do anything. It was irritating.

Sweet, but irritating.

“I don’t care how many times you say it, Ray. Regardless, I clearly have no money but I made a huge hole in the wall by being incredibly stupid, and I’m going to fix it. Money is needed first, though, so I have to get it. Oh, and I need moving boxes now, because yesterday was the last day for me to pay off my eviction. Whoops.” You say as you pick up your eyeliner pen off of the counter and began applying it, still able to see Ray’s less than enthusiastic expression in the mirror. He rolled his eyes and stared at you, still not giving in.

“Where are you even going for this interview anyway?” He asks, a slight tone of sarcasm in his voice. You set the pen back down on the counter and turned around to face him, leaning against the counter with your arms folded over your chest.

“As cliche and white girl as it is, Starbucks actually. There’s one down the street and they just so happen to be hiring. Figured I could make some decent money for the time being. Definitely not permanent though.”

“Do you know how much time you’ll have to stand on your feet there? The doctor said to not-”

“Ray,” you say, putting a hand on his chest and another over his mouth. “I know what the doctor said, but the doctor also doesn’t know that if I don’t get out of my apartment I could get sued and that I’m broke as dicks. So shut up and go to work.” You say, a blank look on your face with a hint of a smirk toying the edge of your mouth. Ray stared at you with a concerned expression, but broke the eye contact as he yanked your wrist towards him to pull you into an embrace. You gave in as you fell towards him, feeling his arms wrap around you. He squeezed slightly for a moment, but pulled back to look at you.

“Right after the interview come home. Seriously, no bullshit. I know you think you’re all better, but you’re not, so don’t walk everywhere. Home. Right after.” He said, a serious tone and a facial expression to match. You pouted with your lower lip out, but immediately smiled after a few seconds. You couldn’t help yourself as your hand jetted up towards his nose.

“Boop!” You say as the tip of your finger touched his nose. He scowled at first, but began smiling soon after. He began to laugh with you, as you were currently nearly tearing up, but he spun you around and shoved you out the curtain instead. You stumbled quickly, but recovered as you sauntered out to grab your shoulder bag off of the kitchen counter. You grabbed it and tossed it lazily over your shoulder, turning around to look at Ray.

“Do I look business-y enough for an interview?” You ask with concern.

You were currently dressed in a pair of long nice looking black jeans and a white button down formal shirt, accompanied with nothing but the most stylish one converse and your ankle boot. Definitely the height of the outfit, no doubt.

“Converse, are you sure?”

“You wear them every day! What’s wrong with them?”

“Nothing, I just wonder if you’d look better in those lacy black flats you bought instead.”

“What, you mean my Toms? Some would say that those are even more lazy, Ray.”

“Just put one on, I’m curious.”

“Ray, I’ll be late-”

“Please?”

“Ugh,” You groan in frustration, “fine.” You bend down to pull the shoe off and the sock at the same time. You waddled over to the front door where your shoes were laying, and you slid the shoe on roughly and stared at Ray, one hand on your hip and another at your side.

“Yes, I like.” Ray says with satisfaction, nodding his head in approval before he reached over to grab his hoodie off of the couch and slip his converse on.

“Rude.”

“Oh whatever. You’re the one that wanted to look good for the interview to go out and make money anyway, so take your lumps.”

“Whatever.”

“Don’t whatever me, (y/n).”

“You know Ray, usually when I ask if I look okay I just want a yes.”

“You always look good, I can’t deny it. Plus,” He leans over to pull you in a side hug as you lock the door, “I love those shoes anyway. Good choice.”

You smile as you feel the heat rise to your cheeks as they began to turn a shade of red, but continued to give Ray a hard time anyway.

“Oh no, flattery won't get you out of this, Ray. Take your lumps.” You say with a smirk as you pat him on the back with force before running off towards the stairs. Sure, you had to take the stairs slowly with your ankle being the way it was, but that didn't stop you. Of course, every day Ray questioned it, but oh well. He did that with everything anyway.

Once at the bottom, you waited for Ray to catch up. Once his face made its way down the flight, you rolled your eyes at him and smirked once again.

“Wow, you are so god damn slow.”

“Shut up. Hobbling or whatever the fuck you do seems so much easier than walking.”

“It’s the exact same, dummy. Who’s bitter this morning?”

“Bleh.” Ray says as he steps next to you and you began to walk towards the street. It was at least a 10 minute trek ahead of you, and you couldn’t let yourself get too tired before the interview so you walked slowly. Once you set foot on the sidewalk, you felt another hand grab for yours, embracing it perfectly as the fingers intertwined. Normally you would have been shocked as you were the first time he did it, but this time you actually knew why. Ever since the accident you had noticed Ray had been more nervous when it came to major roads, especially when it involved you. You weren't surprised that he was holding your hand and running his thumb over your knuckles as he did so, because about two days earlier you had snuck out to walk with him to get something from the convenient store around the block and across the street. You just figured that this was a normal thing now, and you didn’t mind.

“I just don’t want to go to work.” Ray says dejectedly, breaking the silence. You sigh, wrapping your other arm across your chest to grab onto his upper arm as you walked.

“I thought you’d be excited, it’s the first time you’re leaving the house and getting away from me, which we both know would be a relief after what this week has held. Get to work, see some friends. Hell, even go out later.”

“That’s exactly why I don’t want to leave, though. What if something happens while I’m gone? I can’t be there to do something about it, and I can’t help you. What if-”

“Ray, stop it with the what-if’s. That will only make things worse, seriously. I’ll be fine. Call me every hour if you want, I don’t mind. As long as you aren’t recording, then you can AIM me instead. I just want you to get out of the apartment, you’ve been in there too long.”

“But, what if-”

“No! Just go the fuck to work, god damn.”

“Ugh, fine. I’m doing the calling thing though.”

“Yes, I figured, that’s fine. Just go to work.”

“Can I at least walk you over there?”

“Will you actually go back to work? Because if your answer is no, my answer will also be no.” You say seriously, still continuing to walk down the street. You had already passed the road the led to the office, and you had figured he was going to walk you anyway, but it wasn’t too late to send him back.

“Yes, mom, I will, damn.”

“Okay, good.”

The rest of the walk was pretty much done in silence. You could feel that Ray was nervous next to you, and you the same but for a different reason. As much as the thought of the risk of getting hit again stuck in your mind, you were actually genuinely nervous about the interview. This was your first interaction job, especially since this was your first real job since you’d been able to get one. You couldn’t hide out in your apartment anymore, and Ray was right, you would have to stand more. Though, maybe it wouldn’t be all that bad. It wasn’t like you had anywhere else to be for work anyway.

This could work.

Hopefully.

As you approached the door, you looked in the window nervously. You looked back at Ray, then back at the door. You swallowed roughly, and then looked back at Ray once more.

“You’ll be fine, just go. They’ll love you, and you’ll be the perfect coffee girl. Haven’t you ever read those romance stories where you’ll meet your soulmate here? Yeah, that’ll happen.”

You scoffed, rolling your eyes at him in response. You wanted the moment to be lighthearted, but you just couldn’t. Not here, not now. You took one unsure step towards the shop and rested your hand on the door handle, but turned around one last time. He was still there, a smile on his face. You smiled back, and with the jungle of the door you were inside.

“Hello! You must be (y/n) if I’m not mistaken?” A man asked, and you nodded. You went to reach into your bag after shaking his hand hesitantly, but he waved you off.

“Don’t bother with the resume. When can you start?”

\--------------------------------------------------------------

I just wanted to put a HUGE thank you shout to all the beta's who helped me with this chapter!

Whether it was words of encouragement or little ideas, or just chatting it up about stupid shit, You are appreciated!

THANK YOU!

**(tumblr URL's to my beautiful beta's!)**

[alphabetbabe](http://alphabetbabe.tumblr.com/)

[on-a-moonlit-night](http://on-a-moonlit-night.tumblr.com/)

[Jack Your Pattillo](http://jackyourpattillo.tumblr.com/)

and finally

[life--working-on-it](http://life--working-on-it.tumblr.com/)

You guys are amazing, and without you I wouldn't be up posting this right now!

(AceOfSpades152, I still need your email to get you onto the doc as well!)

THANK YOU FOR READING!

 


	10. Noting the Future, Wiping Away the Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's done! *Jazz Hands* 
> 
> I take forever to write, oh my.

** Two Weeks Later  **

“Order for Ray!”

“Why thank you very much, took you long enough. You know, I love you and all, but I think I deserve a special treatment.” Ray says, looking at you playfully while unwrapping his straw. He was smirking, as usual, and he was sat at the counter which was his prime position for distracting you from working. You took another womans order quickly and began to blend the cream and the coffee in order to make her latte. As you constructed the womans drink, Ray continued to stare you down, unrelentlessly smirking.

“Oh yeah? Just what kind of special treatment are we talking here, dude?” You ask, still mixing the drink in your hands.

“Oh I don’t know…” Ray says, drawing out the last syllable and leaning over the counter’s edge and onto one of his elbows. He looked at you with whatever the fuck that look was in his eyes was, which was most easily summed up with “flirtatiously”, but you chose to ignore it with a clear expression of “disgust”.

“In your dreams, dumbass.” You say with a scoff as you subconsciously call out the name written on the cup and hand the drink across the counter.

“Gross, sicko, why would I ever do that? You have such a dirty mind.”

“Oh, I do?!”

“Yes, and it’s quite upsetting.” Ray says quaintly, sipping at his iced tea and scrolling through his phone quickly.

“Bullshit. You want dirty? I think I have some smut fanfic in my history on my phone…” You respond teasingly, digging through your purse on the counter next to Ray. You laughed and walked over to take another order, leaving Ray to his own disgust. You chuckled to yourself once before reading off the script you had begun to know so well after working so much in the past two weeks.

“Hello there! What can I get you this morning?” You ask, looking up from the register then back down at the screen, only to jerk your neck up in a surprisingly fast motion. The man in front of you cocked his head to the side and expressed a sweet smile, punctuated by dimples and freckles to match.

“Hello to you too. Uh, I guess just a regular ol’ coffee for me. The medium size. Cream and sugar too.”

He handed you his credit card, and with one swift motion you took the card and swiped it, handing it back with a receipt attached.

“Sign there, if you will. I’ll go get the coffee.”

“Before you go do that, can I get a napkin?” He asks you, in which you just respond by pointing at the counter next to Ray. You begin to pour the coffee slowly to minimize spillage, only to burn your fingers in the process. You set the cup down quickly, a small splash coming up out of the exposed top as you fling your fingers every which way in a pathetic attempt to fight away the pain. You heard a chuckle from one of the men sat at the counter, but you ignored it as you held the hand to your chest momentarily before starting to pour the coffee once more. You slapped a lid onto the steaming cup and slid it across the counter into his hands.

“Order for Michael.”

“Don’t get too excited there.”

“Don’t you boys have somewhere to be other than harassing me at my place of work?”

“Well, yes, but we could also just harass you from our place of work. Ah, isn’t technology wonderful?” Michael asks, simulating staring off into the clouds and the great beyond, punctuating everything with a long drawn out sigh. You roll your eyes before stealing Ray’s phone out of his hands.

“Leave.”

Ray looks up at you with surprise, mouth agape and hands still curled as if they had the phone in them.

“Yo, pass that back over here. I need that.” Ray says, attempting to reach out and grab it from your hands. You see a car pull up in the parking lot and come to a stop, and you figured that they were bound to be a customer.

“You can have it when you leave. Get out.”

“But-”

“No buts. Seriously, I have to work. It’s a fucking miracle that I scrounged up the money to pay off my eviction and now I owe money again. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to pay that much off, let alone monthly. Oh, and I especially can’t with you goofing around in here, so leave.”

“Ugh,” Ray grunts as he hops down from his barstool that he frequents, “fine. Gimme that though. Seriously, I do need that.”

You throw it his way quickly, and watched in mock horror as the device almost slipped out of his hands and onto the tiled ground. You smirked at his displeasured expression and shooed him away from the bar with your hands. You smiled at the customer as they entered, ready to take their order, but relaxed as she signaled that she would need a moment.

“I’ll be back at your lunch break. I get to choose this time.” Ray says quickly before turning around and starting his trek towards the office. It was both a blessing and a curse that you worked within a block of the Rooster Teeth office and also a block from your apartment. It meant a short commute, but also the pain of dealing with Ray all the time it seemed. Though, he did buy you lunch sometimes. That was nice.

You smiled at the thought as you went to wipe down the counter where Ray and Michael had been sitting, only to find a large puddle of coffee and a folded up napkin. You wiped away the coffee with the rag with one wipe, and crumpled the napkin in your other hand, but removed it when you saw a pen mark. Maybe Michael was just testing his pen or something, surely it wasn’t anything.

Wouldn’t hurt to look, would it?

You unraveled the napkin quickly and smoothed it out on the counter, reading over the long lines of writing on the paper.

_I thought you said you could be loud too? Gotta be louder, hon. Maybe next time you’ll get it right._

You frowned, grumbling to yourself as you folded the napkin up and stuffed it into your apron pocket. You stared out of the window, leaning on the counter and mindlessly scrubbed the now spotless countertop, immersed in your own thoughts. You would have been stuck there if it hadn’t been for the woman that politely caught your attention by the counter, or without the fact that your stomach felt like it had been reduced to a blob of butterflies.

What had happened?

Fuck it, everything seemed to be a mystery unsolved lately.

Surely things would get better once the lunch hour came along, food always made things better. Just a rather large amount of time to be around Ray and food at the same time. Was there a better place to be?

From that point, the day seemed to drag on and on, a never ending loop of boring orders, some nice people who actually knew that respect existed, and others who knew nothing of the topic. Oh, and some coffee. Lots of coffee. Although, once the time had passed slower and slower, lunch finally came. As you counted down the minutes and watched as the large hand on the clock on the wall ticked closer and closer to the 12, you leaned over the counter in anticipation, getting some rather strange looks from the few that were sat on laptops or phones around the area. All was peaceful in the store, well until the hand finally struck 12, that is. Once the lunch hour had arrived, you promptly flung yourself backwards away from the counter and sprinted into the back room, passing another coworker on your way there. She made a sound of confusion, but then laughed as she saw the time. You turned around to wave sporadically at her before  grabbing your bag off of the hook and sprinting out the back door.

To your own surprise, for once when you reached the only major intersection between your work and the Rooster Teeth office you had the opportunity to cross by running full speed, as opposed to the usual scenario of waiting for the light to change while it doesn't for a solid 5 minutes. You sprinted across the small road in front of the office as well, becoming more and more out of breath as time went on. Damn, exercise was hard. You stood outside the gate, jumping up and down and waving insanely waiting for the woman at the front desk to see you. You smiled brightly as the gate began to slide open almost immediately, and you sprinted lightly towards the front door, stopping and opening it slightly.

You waved a small quaint ‘hello’ to the woman and walked to the door to the office right next to the entrance, the Achievement Hunter office. You open the door quietly, stepping inside quickly and shutting it as quietly as possible. You plop down onto the couch next to Ryan, who looks over at you with a smile, but then goes back to staring at his screen. You noticed that they were recording a GTA lets play, so you watched in interest as everyone laughed and focused intently on their screens. Jack turned around suddenly in protest to him dying at Ryan’s hand, and when he saw you he smiled politely and waved quickly before turning back to watch his screen again. You smiled to yourself as you looked around, noticing all the small things you never usually noticed.

“Oh, (y/n) is here, I guess it’s her lunch break.” Geoff says turning to smile at you. You wave in response, a smile also spreading on your face. His smile was so infectious, damn.

“I guess that means we should probably cut capture, we’ve been going for two hours now Geoff.” Gavin says, turning around in his chair to look at Geoff, who nods understandingly.

“Yeah, Gavin’s right. Alright, Let’s Stop!”

Everyone sighed as they cut capture and pushed away from their desks, stretching and pulling out their phones.

“Who wants food?” Geoff asks everyone, getting a few grumbles and one yes in response. He looks at you with one eyebrow raised, but you wave him off with your hand as Ray joins you next to the couch. He nods and waves to the both of you as he walks out, most of the other men in tow. You chuckled once as you sat and listened to the arguments among the group over who was going to pay for who and where they were even going in the first place.

“Where do you wanna go, (y/n)? I’m up for anything food related.” Ray asks, patting his stomach once to exaggerate his point further. You laughed, looking around the room mindlessly as you thought about all the places that were in walking distance from the office. You noticed someone sitting at a desk, but kept looking around, only to jerk your head back to see Michael at his desk with his head down in his hands. You wanted to speak up, to ask what was wrong, but you knew better. Anytime you tried to talk to him it always ended badly, you knew that, so why did you still care?

“Yoohoo, still there?” Ray questions, waving a hand in front of your blank thoughtful eyes. You shake your head once to jerk yourself out of your thoughts.

“Uh, yeah. I can’t think of anything within walking distance that sounds good. I guess we can just go home if you want, get something there…”

You knew that Michael had a car, but you didn’t want to give him the chance to ask. Odds are he wouldn’t drive with you anywhere anyway, knowing how he had been acting around you lately. Anytime the two of you came into contact within the past two weeks, the tension was always razor sharp and fishing line thin, which was astronomically uncomfortable to you. Eventually you just started avoiding contact with him entirely, in a feeble attempt to save yourself in the process, but you still had to come into contact with him. You knew that you shouldn’t give him the satisfaction of getting under your skin, but he still did every time. Any barriers you put up he broke down within seconds, and it was starting to make you mad.

“Oh, hi Michael! I thought you went to lunch with the rest of the guys.” Ray says cheerfully, which was just the tip of the iceberg for you. Michael grunted and sat up, stretching his arms behind his back as he turned his chair around to face Ray.

“Nah, didn’t feel like it really. What’re you guys doing for lunch?”

“Not really sure I guess.” Ray says, looking over at you, locking eyes with yours, which were currently masking your rage behind them. You shrugged up at him, looking away and at the floor instead.

“How about pizza? There’s a really good pizza place down on Capital of Texas Highway that I heard about, so we could go there. It’d still get us back before (y/n)’s lunch break is over, since she has a wicked huge one.”

You shrugged, still refusing to move your eyes from the floor. Maybe that would deter Ray from going with Michael.

“That sounds awesome actually. I assume you’re driving?”

“Well, no shit.”

Fuck.

“Awesome!” Ray exclaims, clapping his hands together once as he turned on his heel and walked out. You still sat on the couch, completely still. You watched Michael stand up to leave, looking at you for a moment before walking out in pursuit of Ray. You sighed deeply before standing up to follow, glancing down at your feet once before walking out of the office, shutting the door as you went. You walked slowly towards Michael’s car, sliding into the back seat quietly. Ray was in the front seat after calling shotgun rather loudly in the parking lot, so you were alone in the back. Which, to you, was honestly the best place to be. You knew the two men were in the front seat discussing some stupid topic they’d seen on the subreddit, but you tuned it out as background noise when you leaned on the door and stared out the window, watching with a blank expression as everything whipped by the car at fast speeds.

Within no time at all, the car was parked in front of the pizza place, the two men in the front of the car flooding out of the car at extremely eager speeds. Sighing heavily once more, you threw your door open and got out, looking around before shutting it and joining them inside. They were both stood in front of the counter, staring up at an extremely awkward angle in order to read the options on the menu. You glanced up briefly, but then shrugged and walked over to a booth in the corner instead. Ray turned around to look at you and threw up his arms in a questioning manner, but you just shook your head in response.

“No, seriously, what do you want?” Ray asks openly, loud enough for you to hear. Michael hops up onto his heel for a moment, throwing a finger up in realization.

“Oh! We could get like-”

You sighed, turning your head away and tuning his voice out with it. You stared blankly out the window, squinting slightly at how bright it was outside today. Luckily all the trees around the restaurant kept the glare from cars off of the windows and allowed you to look around mostly comfortably.

“Hey (y/n), does that sound okay?” Ray asks, slightly gesturing towards Michael, signifying it was his idea.

You shrug once again.

“Do whatever you want, I don’t really care.”

Ray smiled a small smile before turning around as he allowed Michael to list off the order for the pizza to the man behind the counter. The man handed Ray three glasses for soda and the receipt, which Michael grabbed and wrote something down before shoving it into his pocket. Within seconds Ray was at the table and sitting down next to you, sliding a glass filled with your favorite soda in front of you. You thanked him quietly, but you weren’t sure if he’d heard you or not. Part of you just wanted to assume that he did, so you did just that. Michael slid into the booth in front of you, sipping from his soda which was dangerously close to overflowing and spilling onto the table. Leaning on the wall next to you, you continued to stare out the window, going unnoticed by both of the men as they discussed a difficult achievement in one of the new release games.

Eventually the smell of pizza filled your nose as a fresh warm pizza was set on the table. Each of them took 2 pieces each to start, but you just took one, nibbling on it slowly as your thoughts swamped your head endlessly. There wasn’t even anything in particular that you were thinking about, but all you knew was that it was distracting you to no end. You were finally yanked from the abyss of your mind when you felt Ray get up from the spot next to you. You looked around startled at first, but took a deep breath and calmed down once the shock passed.

“You really should be louder, you know.”

You swallowed a gulp of soda before looking up at Michael in frustration.

“I’m not just going to yell out all the time, dumbass.”

“Well, no, of course not, but you have to do it when it actually matters.” Michael says matter of factly as he takes a sip from his soda. You set your still not even half eaten slice of pizza on the plate and looked at him questioningly.

“Psh, and when’s that?”

“When you actually need to speak up and say what you want.”

“Oh please, I already do that.”

“No, actually, you don’t. There have been multiple occasions where you haven’t said what you wanted and kept it all bottled up inside of you. You won’t get anywhere if you don’t speak the fuck up, (y/n). Seriously, someone does something you don’t like? Say something. You want something? Say what you want. Not everything is so complicated, you know.”

“You don’t understand, Michael. It doesn’t always work like that.”

“Well someday how about you try it.”

“I’m not-”

“Shut up,” Michael says, holding up a hand to shush you, much to your own displeasure. “Just think about it. You never know when it might work.”

As soon as Michael finished speaking, he leaned back in the booth and looked up at Ray who had just walked out of the men’s restroom.

“Did I miss anything?” Ray asks as he sits back down in the booth and reaches for another slice.

“Nope. Well, we talked shit about you, but other than that, nope.” Michael states as he slides his hands across the tabletop to reach for more pizza, but once he lifted his palms up off of the table you saw a folded up slip of paper right next to your cup. You reach out and grasp the note under the table, attempting to keep it discreet from Ray.

_I know that there’s something that you want, so just get it. You deserve it._

You looked up from the note, immediately locking eyes with Michael across the table. He didn’t break the gaze, but rather kept it as he mouthed something as Ray looked away.

“Get what you deserve.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to put in here that if anyone has any fic requests they'd like me to add to my prompt list please LET ME KNOW :)


	11. Home is Where the Hatred Moves In

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A new chapter already?! I really kicked my ass in gear and got this written up for you guys, even though this is a SLIGHTLY shorter chapter than normal. 
> 
> Forgive me.

The squeak of the shower, the coolness of the tile, it all awoke your senses with a jolt. Sleep hadn’t come easily to you the past few days, and you couldn’t pinpoint exactly why. You knew that when Michael had spontaneously given you that speech of doing what you want to get what you want had really made you think, but surely that wasn’t it. It couldn’t be. It hadn’t changed anything major in your life, and the only times you were plagued with insomnia seemed to be when you had a ton of stress that caused anxiety. So far, there really wasn’t anything to be nervous about. Ever since you had obtained your remarkably enjoyable job at Starbucks, everything seemed to be going just fine. You had managed to gather up enough money to pay off your eviction after an exhausting amount of hours at work, but you’d still gotten out of the hole nonetheless. You hadn’t been working quite as many hours lately because you had already paid off the bill, but you were sure that you’d managed to scrape up the money to pay it once again this month. Rent was due yesterday, and it had come to the point where you were too busy to attempt calculating every bill to see how much spending money you were allotted, so you just routed your bank account to wire money to the main office. It just seemed easier.

So far you hadn’t heard anything, so you just did the normal thing and assumed everything went off fine.

Luckily today was your day off, so you could spend some lazy time on the couch doing nothing. Well, not your couch specifically, but it was still a couch. You turned off the water in the shower and stepped out onto the shag rug, digging your toes into the soft material as you engulfed yourself in a towel. Even the towels were plush soft. What a nice beginning to a nice day.

Throwing on a nice pair of jeans and, as always, a Rooster Teeth graphic tee, you flung the bathroom door open to release some of the steam from your hot shower. You dried your hair quickly and threw it up into a bun, not minding if you looked sloppy or not. Normally you cared if you went out anywhere, but where you were going, no one gave two fucks either way. Why go through all the trouble to get all spiffy when no one would notice regardless? You hopped out of the bathroom, slamming the lightswitch to the ‘Off’ position rather roughly and began the search for your shoes. Luckily, there was a pair of toms right near the door, so you just slid those on and grabbed your bag, heading out the door quickly. You sprinted to the back of the complex, finding a gap that Ray had shown you about a month back and you slid through it, careful not to snag any threads on your shirt as you did so.

Once on the other side, you sprinted off to the front gate of the RT building, lucky to catch the gate open when a car was passing through. You slowed your pace and walked towards the front door, waving politely to the woman at the front desk, as well as Joel, who was stood in the entryway. You heard him mutter something about Adam, which was accompanied by a string of curses, so you knew better than to bother him. You stepped into the Achievement Hunter office quickly, setting your bag on the side of the couch before walking out to go to the kitchen.

You smiled as you walked towards the fridge, seeing Chris and Brandon leaning on the counter discussing something. Chris flicked a hand up at you while Brandon smiled brightly, but the two men didn’t say any words. You opened the fridge as they began talking to each other once again, Brandon ranting about something Doctor Who related he’d seen on the internet the night before. Reaching for your favorite canned soda, you popped the cap as you shut the door with your butt, both hands too busy for the door. You saw Jon walk in the front door as you walked back to the office, but you just kept your head down and walked by. Sure, you were friendly to everyone in the office, but you had to admit you loved the idea of his job. Graphic design all day that actually had a set pay? That sounded awesome, and you were envious.

When you walked in, you set the can down on Ryan’s little desk and plopped yourself once again on the little white couch. No one was in the office at the moment, but you had seen everyones cars in the parking lot, and you just assumed that they were all off somewhere else in the office up to some weird shenanigans. They’d be back soon enough for you to laugh at and make fun of. But for the time being you just laid your head back and relaxed…

“Gavin, NO!”

Well, you were relaxing.

You saw Michael’s livid expression as you stared at the door and watched him enter, in which he was followed by a squeaking Gavin, and a group of laughing achievement hunters. You saw that there was a camera rolling, which was being held by an amused Kerry as he struggled to keep the camera still as he giggled uncontrollably. He pointed the camera at you once, which you responded by putting one hand over your face and flipping the bird at him with the other. He laughed louder, pointing the camera back at the two men. Michael was currently wiping frantically at his face with a napkin while Gavin pointed and laughed, utterly amused by the situation you assumed he caused.

“What is even happening right now?” You ask, surprise in your voice as you began to laugh as well. Ryan turned to look at you, and Michael began to speak.

“Well this asshole decided to shake up my soda while I was in the bathroom, and then proceeded to open it so that it sprayed all over me when I came out of the bathroom! Who does that?!” You could tell that Michael was getting more and more mad the less and less that came off onto the napkin, but Gavin didn’t seem afraid and neither did anyone else. You knew better though.

Of course, after a few seconds on mindless banter and yelling, Michael threw the napkin towards Ryan and tackled Gavin to the floor, and suddenly both grown men were flailing around on top of one another, rolling around on the floor until they hit the bookshelf. Though, once they hit the bookshelf, one of the shelves fell, sending games cascading down onto the men. There was a flurry of swears, distressed sounds from Jack and Geoff, as well as Gavin screaming “Ow, my nose! One of them hit me in the nose!”. You sat back, watching everything go down from afar, laughing your ass off. You began laughing even harder as you saw Geoff forcibly separate the men, yelling a comment out about babies. Kerry shut off the camera, saying something about comedy gold before he waved to you and walked out. Michael stood up and brushed off his jeans, flipping Gavin off as he did so. Once both men were back on their own two feet, Geoff spoke up.

“Now clean this shit up.”

You leaned back and took a large swig of your soda, sighing before you stood up to go assist the two struggling, bickering men. You knelt down next to the monstrous pile of games, but you stopped to stare at Geoff once you heard a sound.

“Ah ah! Just let them do it, they’re the stupid ones anyway.”

You stood up, palms slapping against your thighs as you did so.

“Whatever you say, Geoff.”

You walked back over to the couch, where Ryan was now sat, but he slid over to allow you to sit next to him. Granted, it was a tight fit with the two of you, but you made do. Sipping once again at your cold soda, you looked around the room and noticed all the little things going on. You saw Jack, who was sitting at his desk scribbling something down into his AHWU journal, Geoff, who was scrolling through his phone while he logged into xbox live, Michael and Gavin who were bickering and attempting to pick up games, and then Ray, who seemed to be going through a pile of mail for some reason.

“Ray, why did you bring your mail to work?”

He looked up from the pile to glance over at you, eyebrows raised in question.

“Oh, I’m waiting for something to show up, and I left late this morning so I just grabbed it out of the box on my way out. Figured I could do the same thing here that I could at home, but I would know what was in the pile sooner than if I just did it at home.” He says, going back to flipping through the pile.

“What, so you can see if you got more of my mail?”

“Isn’t there like, a federal law against getting other peoples mail?” Ryan asks, looking at you first, then flicking his eyes to Ray also.

“Well, there’s a law that you can get in a fuck ton of trouble with by _opening_ someones mail, which he does.” You say, creating large movements towards Ray with your arms.

“Oh whatever, it’s not like I can open a page of Wendy’s coupons, okay? Damn woman, can’t a man get some coupons?”

“No.”

“Well fuck you too then. I had a coupon for Jersey Mike’s that came in the mail addressed to you that I was gonna use for your lunch, but forget that now.” You pout, scoffing loudly in response. “Wait, I think I got legit mail of yours this time.” He says, pulling out a white envelope with priority stamps on it. You got up to grab it from his hands, ripping it open almost instantly. Standing up, Michael takes a swig of the Red Bull on his desk and looks over your shoulder as you skim through the letter. Your jaw fell open and your eyes began to water, but he couldn’t see that from his angle.

“Man, Wendy’s coupons are getting pretty fucking spiffy, if I do say so myself.” He says jokingly, before returning back to the floor with Gavin and the mess of games. Ray steps closer to you, setting a hand on your shoulder and staring at you with deep concern.

“What does it say?”

“I…” You choke out, disbelief and sadness cracking out of your voice. “I can’t pay my bills again! I thought I had enough money! Fucking hell…”

“Woah, what? You worked like, a shit ton of hours at the coffee shop this month, how can you not pay your bills?”

“Well….I did cut back on hours slightly. I was starting to get exhausted!”

You trudged back over to the couch, which you flopped defeatedly down onto. Your head lolled back, nearly hitting the wall as Ryan attempted to comfortingly pat your hand.

“Shit. What’re you gonna do, (y/n)? I mean, you could probably stay with me for awhile, but I think Griffon has company coming over soon for the holidays…” Geoff says warily, clearly wanting to help but thoroughly unsure if he could or not.

“No, no, it’s fine Geoff. I’ll either...get a second job, move out, or get a roommate. But that’s going to be pretty difficult, considering I already work a ton of hours at Starbucks, I don’t think there’s any cheap apartments around here where I wouldn’t feel like I’d get mugged just by going outside, and I don’t have any friends who could move in with me.”

“You could put up an ad.” Jack says optimistically. You shake your head, frowning in the process.

“I don’t trust it. I just want someone who knows me and I know them, so that when we actually have to be around each other we don’t A, hate each others guts or B, have nothing to talk about. That would make living with a roommate worse than being stabbed in a cheap ass complex.”

Jack nods knowingly, turning back around to his journal and computer.

“Well, what a fucking coincidence, I’m actually rage quitting my apartment complex and was thinking of moving into yours and Ray’s complex instead. Mine sucks. End of the month, I’m fucking gone. Haven’t contacted your HOA yet though.”

“Ugh, if I was you, I wouldn’t. They can be pretty rude.” Ray says, shaking his head.

“Well, oh wise Ray, how else would I get an apartment if I don’t talk to the HOA, huh?”

“You could move in with (y/n)...” Ray mutters hesitantly, eyes drifting from Michael’s face over to your shocked one. He shrugs, turning back to the pile of mail he still hadn’t gone all the way through yet.

“I don’t know about that, Ray.” You say, eyes wide and quickly shifting between anything you could lay your eyes on. Michael shrugs, picking up some games and setting them neatly on the shelf.

“I don’t really think…”

“Oh my hell, just do it. You know her, she knows you. You won’t creep on her when living with her, and she always stays the hell out of your way. I don’t see any problem, other than the fact that you two ignore each other and act like babies 24/7. How about growing a pair and growing up?” Geoff asks irritably, throwing his hands in the air. “Why is this so difficult?”

You sigh, looking at Michael as he looked at you. He looked just as displeased as you did, but neither of you were verbally giving your displeasure. You lean back and put your head on Ryan’s shoulder, exhaling frustratedly. Eventually, after seconds of dead silence, someone spoke up.

“Yeah, sure, whatever. I guess that would be easier. It’s not like I have to pay attention to her all the time.” Michael says, standing up once the last few games were put away.

“But Michael, what about lunch time swimmy bevs? How will we do it if you don’t live at the same place anymore?” Gavin asks, genuinely bothered by the thought.

“Gav, I’m sure the new complex will have a pool too you mong.”

“Oh! Then (y/n) can come with us for swimmy bevs too, huh Michael?” Gavin questions excitedly, doing a small hop in place where he was standing. Michael scratched the back of his neck nervously, coughing.

“Uh, yeah, sure. I guess so.”

“Wahoo! You have to do it, (y/n), It’ll be so much fun! So much fun that you can put up with Michael living with you, I promise!” The Brit squeaks, hands together and his feet still making him bounce up and down, to your own amusement. You giggle, thinking for a minute. He often reminded you of an overly excited toddler, and sometimes it was actually quite precious. Fuck, if that wasn’t persuasion, you didn’t know what was.

“Yeah, yeah, fine. When do we need to move your shit in?” You direct towards Michael, a tone of reluctance and uncertainty in your voice. He whips his head around to look at you, bewilderment on his face.

“Uhmm...I guess my lease ends on Friday…”

“Great! I can come help you move in!” Ray says, his voice excited. It seemed as though everyone else but you and Michael were excited about this. But, hell, what could go wrong?

As it turns out, lots could go wrong.

The moving process was tedious to say the least.

There were boxes everywhere, scuffs on the walls, dents in the door frames, furniture in miscellaneous pieces all over the apartment, and not to mention the Gatorade and beer bottles laying on the counters. Throughout the day, everyone from Achievement Hunter had been around, either helping move Michael’s furniture to your apartment, move things onto the moving truck, take other things to Goodwill, or help you organize your space so that you didn’t hate it. Everything was messy, and you hated it. You were currently just sat in the kitchen, staring over the damage to your once semi-pristine apartment while you sipped away at a bottle of juice or something you had pulled out of your fridge.

So much was going to be sacrificed for this, but what could go wrong?

This was the day that marked the beginning of you reciting that phrase day in and day out, hoping that the answer would always be nothing.

Though, there was always something.

Always.


	12. Late Nights, Late Mornings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, sadly, I think the next chapter will finally be the last one. I'm finally at the point of closing and I'm at the end of my plot points. BUT if I get enough requests for an EPILOGUE after the next chapter is posted then I will consider it greatly.

Work, clean, work, clean again because Michael made a mess, work even more....

It was a never ending vicious cycle.

It had been three weeks since Michael had moved in, and things should have been easier, but they weren't. Having a second person around to help pay the bills did lighten your workload somewhat, but all that newly found free time just was replaced by you cleaning up random messes that were just big enough to piss you off around the flat. Granted, not everything was bad. Michael helped do the dishes sometimes, and some days where you decided to work late he stayed in the apartment rather than going out to vacuum and make sure you got home okay. He was sweet, but also outrageously obnoxious.

You glanced up at the clock as you tossed a dirty washrag into the back room. It was only five minutes till 10, which was nearly closing time. There was only one other girl running the store until closing with you tonight, which really wasn't that big of a deal. Usually no ne comes around near closing time anyway, and if they do its only at the hand of their friends telling them to sober up. That was a situation you had learned to deal with in your times of working here.

Leaning up against the counter, you looked out the large window to take in the scenery. It was nearly pitch black, save for a few street lights here and there, and the ground was still pooling with water from the on and off rain Austin had been getting for the past few days. Lucky for you, the rain had always stopped momentarily as you walked home from work, causing no problems for you.

"You can leave you know. I can stay back and clean up." A woman's voice said, interjecting your thoughts and pulling you back to reality, causing you to spin around to look her in the eyes.

"Oh, you sure? I normally just close on my own." You say uncertainly, not wanting to pass off your duties to anyone else.

"Yeah, sure. My ride's going to be late anyways, and you always let me leave early. I feel like I should return the favor." She says simply, grabbing another clean rag and wetting it briefly, waiting a moment before beginning to wipe down the coffee machines.

"Well, if you're sure, I guess i'll leave you to it. Have a nice night, Maybelle." You turn around, heading into the back room to grab your bag. She waves with one small, swift movement and then goes back to cleaning, humming a song as she did so. She was a really nice girl who you usually had the pleasure working alongside, always appreciating someone to talk to and express your puns with. She made working nights more fun.

Pressing the door open with your side, you glance upwards quickly to examine the night sky. There were clouds covering the sky, but there was no rain falling, to your enjoyment. You toss your bag over your shoulder to assure its comfortable security then step out from under the roof. The street was mostly quiet, only a car every 30 seconds or so apart, making for a seemingly pleasant walk home for the night. You allowed your thoughts to wander as you walked, eyes wandering from the different things in the street to the cloudy night sky. Though you were smiling, you frowned deeply as a raindrop hit you in the dead center of your forehead.

"Fuckin' rain, why." You mutter under your breath as you continue to walk. The rain fell in a drizzle, but kept light enough to where your clothes didn't get soaked through. Your hair gathered water steadily as you continues to walk, but you continued to shake it out when the nest the water made in your hair became unbearable. Once you stopped at the stop light at the intersection, you took out your phone to examine the time. It was now 5 past 10, but it was still earlier than it usually was when you managed to be at the same spot you were in now. You saw one missed text message from Michael, but as you clicked it the 'walk' signal appeared on the post of the intersection. Placing one foot in front of the other, you take a step forward, but as you begin to step down, you hear something rumble along the pavement to your left. You glanced to the left, and upon doing so you leapt backwards swiftly, watching a car speed across the intersection and through the red light.

Then you were hit in the face with a tsunami of road puddle water.

You coughed, forcing the dirty water from your nostrils and mouth, then wiped your face with the back of your hand. You were drenched from head to toe, and the rain was now coming down in heavy droplets.

"Fucking dick!" You scream, flipping your middle fingers in the direction the man sped off in. You knew he was long gone, but hey, it was the thought that counted.

Looking both ways once more, you cross the street successfully, tracking footprints of your worn down sneakers as you did so. Your feet made a squishing sound the entire way home, and even continued to do so as you trudged up the apartment stairs. Angrily, you slam your hand down on the handle of your apartment, expecting the door to go flying open in the other direction. When it didn't, you pounded your fists on the door repeatedly, not stopping until the door was opened. On the other side stood a very irritated Michael Jones, one hand on the door and the other holding a laundry basket to his side.

"Look at Miss Smiles tonight, so pretty!" Michael cooes, reaching out to pinch one of your cheeks.

"I'll punch you."

"Wow, stop the bullying. Damn, rude."

"Whatever," you sigh, rolling your eyes before leaning on the doorframe, "can I just come inside? I'm sick of this gross soggy feeling all over."

Michael eyes you cautiously, looking you up and down before giving you a skeptical look.

"You can come in as long as you don't fuck up the carpet. I've been cleaning, and if you fuck it up i'll murder you in your sleep. Just keep in mind, I do actually know where you sleep."

"Fine." you say simply, tearing off your shoes and socks before stepping inside. You tossed your wet shoes, socks and apron into the laundry room before stopping to strip the rest of the wet clothes. You tore the black shirt from your body and threw it over your head, hearing a choked sound behind you and the faint sound of the laundry basket hitting the carpet.

"Wh-what the fuck are you doing, (y/n)?" Michael asks, bewilderment in his voice and surprise in his eyes. You scoff, rolling your eyes as you start kicking the sopping wet pants off as well. Once they were off you spun around to face Michael, his eyes still filled with surprise. Putting your hands on your hips, you stared at him with a smirk on your face, stifling a laugh as you saw him swallow hard, his jaw tightening.

"You alright there, lad?" You say sarcastically, watching him shake his head repeatedly to clear his thoughts. You walked over to the laundry basket, crouching near it to search for clothes.

"Are some of my clothes in here too?"

He cleared his throat quickly, "Yeah," he says with a slight voice crack, "I did yours too. I figured you'd be tired after working late and your hamper was full...uh, since when are we allowed to walk around in our underwear?"

Scoffing again, you stand up with an entire change of clothes tucked under your arm. You look him in the eyes, noticing the hilarious look on his face.

"Oh don't act so confused, how many times have I had to look at you in your boxers and nothing else, hmm?" You say,you'd immediately bringing the images of him back into your thoughts. Well, he certainly didn't look bad and it didn't bother you in a bad way, so why dismiss the thoughts?

"That's different!" He exclaims, throwing his arms out to his sides. You turn and walk into your bedroom, not closing the door while you change your underwear and bra. Even from in your room, you still continue the conversation.

"How is it in any way different, Michael?"

"Fuck, I don't know, I don't wear lace?!" He exclaims breathlessly, and you laugh just loud enough for him to hear.

"Dude, now that would be a sight to see. Shit, I'd pay money for that." You say, not even sure if you're joking or not. Your mind could be beyond confusing when it wanted to be.

"Whatever. Don't get all hot and bothered on me, (y/n)." He says, picking back up the laundry basket and turning to the living room. You walk out then, still yet to have put on any other clothes, and you watch as Michael's eyes go even wider and he drops the laundry basket once again.

"I could say the same to you I guess, mister oogly eyes."

"That's even worse than the other pair!" He exclaims, gesturing wildly in your general direction with his hands before groaning in frustration. You laugh, placing a hand on your stomach. You knew that he'd react, and it was fun to screw with him. Normally, you wouldn't dress "sexy" in any way, but if it was to play a hilarious prank on your roommate, fuck it. As Ray had taught you, yolo right?

"What are you talking about, this is normal. I wear this all the time." You lie, stifling another giggle as you watch the blood shoot to his face at the comment.

"Wha-"

"Oh, wait, did I not say that loud enough? Gotta be louder." You say with a tormenting gleam in your eye that only shone brighter as Michael's face turned redder.

"No-"

"Hey Michael, I like lingerie! You wanna see?! Oh wait, you already are! You should see how red your face is!" You yell, not caring if anyone above or below you heard. You did secretly wish Ray heard though, but he might be busy. Either way, fucking with Michael was hilarious regardless.

"Yeah, fuck you. You fold the laundry, I'm leaving." He mumbles under his breath before walking towards his room and shutting the door loudly.

"You know who slams doors? Babies!" You yell before turning to gather the laundry basket. You carry the basket into your room, throwing it onto the bed before gathering up your night time lounge clothes and finally slipping them on. You were satisfied with your prank and could now continue on with your night, courtesy of bothered Michael Jones. You threw your music on from your phone and laughed as you looked at the messages on your phone.

The first was normal, but the second was golden.

_Michael: How the fuck do I wash bras?_

Well, for a message from Michael it may be slightly out of the ordinary, but oh well. When you glanced at the laundry basket, you saw your bras thrown in, so you assumed that he figured it out eventually.

Next message.

_Ray: What was that about Michael and your lingerie? Are you guys roleplaying over there or something? Don't fuck against the wall to my apartment, I swear I'd die of throwing up everywhere._

You laughed, tapping on the keyboard to form a reply.

_Nope, no role play here. I was screwing around making Michael uncomfortable. Oh, and on the fucking topic, ew! He'd never want to do that, bleh._

Shoving your hands into the laundry basket, you pull out all the clothes and slowly return them folded. You hear your phone buzz and you reach for it slowly, ignoring the weird pounding sound against your wall adjacent to Michael's room.

_Ray: What's ew, him wanting to bang you or taking you against my wall? Because he'd gladly do both._

You read over the message multiple times, never noticing that your jaw was hanging open as the blood rushed to your face. You turn the screen off for a moment, just taking some time to stare meaninglessly at the wall, and then you throw the device into the laundry basket. Grabbing the basket, you walk out of your room and drop the basket outside Michael's door. You pound on the door once before grabbing your phone and going to the kitchen. You browse the fridge briefly before settling on taking a swig of Michael's 2 liter soda and making popcorn instead.

After putting the bag in the microwave, you grab for your phone off of the counter and read over the message once again, then finally begin typing out a reply.

_Oh don't tease me dear, you know I have a fragile heart._

You tossed the phone over the counter and onto the living room couch, the device landing with a little bounce before settling back down onto a pillow. You grabbed for a bowl under the counter to dump the hot popcorn in, hoping that for once it wouldn't burn you. Of course, your hopes were let down when you got distracted and some of the butter dripped onto your hand. You yank your hand back, jumping up and down in the kitchen shaking your hand furiously. Once it didn't burn as much anymore, you reunited with the bowl and trudged over to the couch to flip on the latest Let's Play.

Hell, even though you lived with an achievement hunter didn't mean that you weren't going to still watch their videos religiously.

You saw your phone light up on the pillow, so you set down your popcorn briefly to read the message. In the background, you could hear Geoff explain the new objective of the let's play, and you heard the collective groans of all the other hunters.

_Ray: No, seriously, no teasing here. I'm actually being deadly serious._

You scoff, popping a piece of popcorn in your mouth.

_Whatever, Ray. Did he say something to you, or what?_

You set your phone on the coffee table and lay down, pulling your legs to your chest and nestling the popcorn in the crook between your legs and your stomach. You focus your eyes on the TV, watching with a smile as the Let's Play began.

Once you neared the end of the episode, you heard the opening of Michael's door and you watched as he stepped out, tripping over the laundry basket and nearly falling face first onto the ground.

"Fuck." He whispered beneath his breath, looking at you momentarily with an accusatory gaze. Though, the gaze faded when you looked up at him and smiled.

"I knocked to tell you it was out there. You didn't answer though."

"Yeah, uh," he rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "sorry about that. I was...busy."

You shrug. "I figured."

He walked over to the couch, and you pulled your knees tighter to your chest to give him more room on the couch.

"What're you watching?"

"Newest Let's Play." You answer as the sound of 'Let's stop!' fills your ears. "Well, I was."

"You know you can always just come and watch as we record, right? It's probably more fun, that way you can see the actual reactions and facial expressions." He says, slouching to lay on the back of the couch. You release your legs to let your feet rest on the side of Michael's thigh cautiously, as things between you guys getting close had always been rough waters.

Though, you were pleasantly surprised when he didn't make any moves to pull away.

You shrug. "I guess I would if work didn't keep me so busy. I'd like to come around more, I like it over there."

Michael chuckles, putting an arm down to scoop up your feet and place them onto his lap.

"It is pretty nice over there."

You look at him, trying to keep a blank expression to hide your confusion and your blush at the same time.

"Why are you so confused?"

Well, so much for that.

"Uh, nothing. Just," you gesture to your feet with one of your hands, "that."

He looks down briefly before shrugging. "I thought you'd be more comfortable this way. It's a small couch."

"Yeah, uh," you mutter, trying to keep the blush from showing, "thanks. It really is more comfortable."

He nods, smiling at you before he reaches to grab the remote from the table. You see your phone and remember that you hadn't checked it since you'd started the Let's Play. You begin to reach for it, but Michael's hand quickly snatches it and places it near you on the couch. You smile as a 'thank you' and he returns it before going back to flipping through the TV guide.

You flicked the device open quickly before skimming the message.

_Ray: Maybe he did._

'Fucking avoidance bullshit,' you think to yourself before going for a reply. You begin typing, but as you do another message comes in.

_Ray: Okay, yeah, he did say a thing or two. Or a shit ton of things, but I'm a bro and I won't tell. Maybe we did used to be better friends, but I'm not an asshole. I know that you complained that he wouldn't let you close to him, but I'm sure he'll come around._

You giggle slightly as you cover your face with your hands, trying to hide your blush. You could feel Michael's gaze on you, but you'd rather look like an idiot this way than the other way, and the other way being him seeing you all melted over him. You feel your phone vibrate once more, and when you flicked it open it wasn't from Ray, but you decided to reply to Ray anyway. While Michael was still flipping aimlessly through the TV guide, you snapped a picture of your legs on Michael's lap and sent it to Ray, putting a small smiley face in the caption before sending it off. When you checked your other messages, you were surprised to see who it was from, especially because of how late it was.

_Geoff: Hey, would you want to do lunch tomorrow? Fuck it, no choice, lunch with me, tomorrow. Come into the office around lunch and we'll go. It'll just be us._

You raise an eyebrow at how strange the message sounded when you read it, but you smiled when you put that thought out of your mind.

_Sure, sounds fun. Although, it does also sound like you're plotting murder. Are you sure Ryan isn't going with us to finish me off?_

You set your phone down resting your head against the pillow as you watch Michael still flip through all the channels. He grumbled angrily, taking off his glasses and turning to look at you.

"Fuck it, can't find any movies. Wanna splurge and do pay per view? I'll pay."

He looks at you hopefully, and you couldn't do anything else but agree. You nod your head excitedly and sit up, leaning more towards his direction. The two of you settle on some comedy that you found and you settle in, cuddling up into a blanket that Michael had given you at some point. About halfway through the movie you became so tired that you couldn't keep yourself up, resorting to laying on Michael's lap. You heard his sharp intake of breath, but after a few moments of pondering and processing, he laid his hand down on your shoulder. You hummed out a faint sound of approval, but you hadn't realized. Eventually, as moments passed, and as you were half awake and half asleep, you felt a soothing hand run through your hair, stroking it from the roots to the tips, then back to the roots to repeat it again. Within seconds you were asleep, relishing in the much wanted and needed attention.

Though, maybe he was just tired.

Maybe he wouldn't remember in the morning.

Maybe-

\-----------------

_Buzz, Buzz, Buzz_

Silence.

_Buzz, Buzz, Buzz_

More silence.

_Buzz, Buzz, Bu-_

"For fucks sake!" You whisper menacingly before launching your hand out to grasp the device. You slid the answer button and allowed your morning caller to feel the wrath.

"What the fuck do you want?! It's fucking early, goddammit."

"No, actually, it's lunch time and we had arrangements. Unless 2:30 is too early for you, princess?" Geoff's voice answers, tone strong and serious. Within seconds you shot upwards, throwing off the covers and launching into the bathroom.

"Fuck, sorry Geoff. Dammit. I guess I slept late or something, me and Michael stayed up late and-"

"Hush. Just get dressed and meet me in the office. I'd like to say that if you aren't here in five minutes I'd leave you, but I won't. But hurry."

With that, the line went dead and you threw your phone onto the bed. You rambled through your drawers, yanking out anything that was in your way. Eventually, after 3 minutes of intensive looking and dressing (and mess making), you were flying out the door, bag in one hand and phone in the other. You sprinted to the back of the complex and slid through the crack in the fence, then bounded towards the office. You saw Geoff already waiting outside the gate, leaning up against his car which he'd parked alongside the curb.

You tried to begin speaking, but you were interrupted with a short and not so sweet "Get in the fucking car". You slid into the passenger seat and watched as Geoff pulled away from the curb, a stagnant but giddy expression on his face. You wanted to ask what was up, but you just left it at silence and stared out the window as he drove.

Once in the parking lot, Geoff finally spoke up.

"I'm not mad."

You sigh and let out a breath you didn't even know you were holding until that moment.

"You aren't?"

"Nah, I knew you guys stayed up late. Plus it's your day off and Michael was giddy as can be for some reason, so I can't exactly disapprove of whatever may or may not have happened last night. But come on, I think you'll really like this place."

Following Geoff, you walked into the small diner, and sat at a small booth in the corner. You tried not to question why Geoff was sitting on the same side of the table as you, but you failed miserably as you turned to look at him and you mouth unlocked.

"Not that I'm complaining, but why are you sitting on this side of the table?"

"Because I'm here."

You look up from your menu only to lock eyes with the one and only Burnie Burns. You watched in awe as he slid into the booth across from you. He laughed as he saw your face, but looked over at Geoff instead as he intertwined his fingers together and sat them on the table. Geoff then did the same, and they both looked at you, expressions unreadable.

"I feel like I'm getting broken up with here, boys. Spit it out, my heart is fragile."

"Well, I heard you were late, and that's your first strike, but," Burnie says, looking you in the eyes before nodding to Geoff.

"How would you like to join the Achievement Hunter team?"

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM STILL TAKING PROMPTS :)


	13. The Words to Our Story

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's over!
> 
> I will put a ** next to one certain section, indicating that you should listen to This Woman's Work by Kate Bush, due to the fact that the section was written based on that song.

“Well, I think that’s about it, (y/n). Everything should be on your desk now.” Geoff says to you as he sets your second monitor down onto your desk. You’d still need help getting everything to connect together, but you could get Ryan to help you with that, considering that you now sat directly next to Ryan in the warehouse. It seemed like such a small space when you looked at it in the first place, but once you sat down it felt different. A good kind of different.

“Thanks, Geoff. I probably would have broken everything if I tried to do everything myself just now. It means a shit ton.” You say, relief in your voice. Geoff was smiling down at you, watching you look over your desk with absolute joy. He knew how excited you were for your first day, as he had been watching you bounce around the office for the past two days learning a few things before your official first day. You had a skip in your step ever since you set foot inside the building for slight training, and everyone had seen it clear as day, especially when you had bounced around a corner and hopped straight into Miles’ arms. Even though you had been utterly embarrassed, you still had the greatest day after Miles had offered to take you on the tour and have you shadow him all day. Now that had been an experience.

“I knew you would, that’s why I’m here, dummy.” Geoff says, wrapping his arm around your shoulders. You lean your head onto his shoulder as he does so, taking in the view of where you’d hopefully be for the rest of your career. It was definitely the chance of a lifetime, and you were elated to be given it. You hear footsteps coming from behind the pair of you, but you choose to ignore it, putting it off as someone going to their desk. Though, you immediately knew that you were wrong as soon as a set of arms wrapped around the shoulders of both you and Geoff, accompanied by a squeak. Geoff chuckled next to you and you did the same, realizing what was happening.

“Well hi there, Gavin.” You say, a smile pinned to your lips. You spun around and were immediately enveloped in a bone crushing hug, courtesy of Gavin.

“(y/n)! It’s finally your first real day!” Gavin squeaks excitedly into your shoulder, hopping slightly on his tip toes which also caused you to jump with him, providing quite the hilarious sight based on Brandon’s reaction from behind you.

“Yeah, yeah it is, Gav. Now you guys can’t get rid of me! Well, hopefully not anyway.” You chuckle, still firmly wrapped in Gavin’s arms. He didn’t seem to have any thoughts of letting you go anytime soon. You squeak out a pathetic sound, but he still didn’t loosen his grip. “Gav….Gav, please.”

With one last firm squeeze, he finally lets you go and you slump over, breathing heavy. He was still smiling, his face radiant with excitement.

“Sorry, love. Oh! Me and Michael are going for lunchtime swimmy bevs, do you wanna come with? It’ll be so exciting!”

“Uh, Gav, I dunno….I don’t want to intrude on the Team Nice Dynamite ritual.” You answer hesitantly. You knew in the back of your mind that you would say yes immediately without any hesitation, but you really were concerned about just forcing yourself into a group of people who had been doing the same exact thing for a long period of time the same way. Asking them to do something different could be seen the wrong way or taken the wrong way. Plus, things between you and Michael had been...uncertain. Sure, everything was nice and relaxed, not as many fights or uncomfortable silences anymore, but you still didn’t know how to feel about everything. Was he just being friendly, or something more? The confusion was real.

“Please, please, please (y/n)! Michael can make the riot punch and bring the baby, it’ll be top!” Gavin exclaims excitedly, hands grabbing at your shoulders. You were almost certain on your answer of not wanting to intrude, but once you saw the look on his face you could hardly resist. You groan, rolling your eyes and looking back into his eyes, which are now filled with increasing hope.

“Ugh,” you grunt, “fine, Gav, I guess I’ll take lunch with you guys.” You watch with a growing smile as Gavin jumped into the air, punching it before landing back onto his feet.

“Yes! I’ll go tell Michael!” He smiles and shakes your shoulders one last time before he turns quickly on his heel and sprints off in the other direction, the sound of him yelling “Michael, Michael!” fading into the air as he got further down the hall.

“Well, that didn’t take long. Your first day and you're already off the market for lunch. Which is really a shame, because you could’ve come with me and the other guys.” Geoff says lightheartedly, lips forming a wide smile. You look up at him, mimicking his same expression as you lightly punch him in the arm.

“If you want what’s here,” you say, gesturing up and down your body a few times, “you gotta get it before it’s gone, man.” He laughs loudly, which causes you to laugh as well. Everyone wasn’t kidding when they had said his laugh was infectious.

“Yeah, I can see that now. I can already see it now, you’ll have to be beating all the guys around here off with a stick, they’ll be so stuck to you.”

“Psh,” you scoff, “No Geoff. Not true.”

He looks at you quizzically in silence for a moment before patting you on the back and clearing his throat.

“Whatever you say, (y/n). I gotta go film with those assholes, so how about you go find Kerry and ask him to teach you how to use the editing software around here so you can do something for me?”

You nod once, grabbing your phone off your new desk and followed Geoff out of the warehouse. You followed him into the Achievement Hunter office, which was oddly full with everyone there at such an early hour. As you walk in, you smile at everyone as they turn around, returning Ray’s wave and Gavin’s excited grin.

“Anyone seen Kerry around? I need to go find him.” You ask, looking around the room. A few of them shrugged and Ray shook his head no.

“Why do you need Kerry?” Ryan asks curiously, looking at you with one eyebrow raised.

“Oh, I need to have him teach me how to use the editing software.” You answer nonchalantly, shrugging in an ‘it’s no big deal’ kind of way.

“Well,” Ryan says, looking away from you and to Geoff quickly, “Geoff, what are we playing?”

“It’s just one of the games we decided to pick up for a Wednesday let’s play. Why?”

“Do you absolutely need me in this one?”

Geoff looks over at Jack expectantly, who merely just shrugs in response.

“I guess not. Why?”

“I think it’d be easier for me to show (y/n) how to edit videos. I edit more than Kerry does by far, and Kerry will probably be busy with Miles and Monty today.”

Geoff hesitates, his eyes darting slowly around the objects in the room, deep in thought. After a few moments of silence, he finally just turns around in his seat and waves a loose hand in Ryan’s direction.

“Go ahead, we should be fine with just five today. We transferred and burned our names into two different sets of footage, a Things to Do and what needs to be today’s Wednesday let’s play. You can show her how to edit by having her watch and learn with the Things to Do, and once she’s comfortable, turn her loose and see if she can edit today’s let’s play. If you feel like you can’t do it, give it to either Michael or Ray to finish it. It’s just whatever you’re comfortable with, really.”

“Alright,” Ryan says while he stands up, closing his case of his computer and xbox before placing them off to the side, “thanks Geoff.”

“No problem, but i’ll say in the nicest way I can, get out. We have things to do.”

“And we have to edit a Things to Do!” Ryan says excitedly before grabbing your hand and walking swiftly out of the door and towards the warehouse. You could hear the muffled groans about Ryan’s comment, and you heard the door slam behind the two of you. Once in the warehouse, you sit yourself down into your chair and flipped open your company bought Macbook. Directly next to you you saw Ryan do the same, opening yet another Diet Coke. You chuckle, snatching the can from his desk and taking a long swig of it, much to Ryan’s displeasure.

“Why would you do that?” Ryan asks, a playful scowl on his face. You laugh again, returning the can to his desk before answering.

“Isn’t that like, your second or third today? It’s not even ten thirty yet, Rye.” You say, laughing as he wraps his hand around the can protectively.

“Maybe…” He mumbles before taking a long drink and opening the file containing the Things to Do footage.

“Scoot over here, I won’t bite.” Ryan says, gesturing over to the spot adjacent to his own chair.

You look at him hesitantly before wheeling your chair to be directly next to his.

“Of course you wouldn’t bite. You’d much rather kill me, crazy bastard.”

“Not without slow torture first. It’s funner that way.” He says in a low voice as he opened up the software and dragged all the individual clips into the correct spots, not once looking over at you. Part of you knew he was kidding, but the next part was just hoping that the other part was right.

“Alright, let’s start with this part first.”

\----------------

After what had seemed like ages, you pulled your eyes away from your monitor and yanked your green headphones from your head. Stretching your arms above your head, you yawned audibly, then sighed in pleasure as you felt your back muscles relax all at once. After Ryan had taken out the time to show you to edit, he had decided to let you try your own hand at finishing the Things to Do. Once you had finished that, he had given you the footage for the Wednesday let’s play, which had been a huge piece of work. First, some of the audio was off, so you had to google how to fix that, then, after that, you had discovered that Ryan’s footage was missing. What a surprise. After spending five minutes with your head in your hands you had eventually brought yourself to start, and after that point everything had seemed to run quite quickly. Before you knew it, it was already nearly noon and you had at least a third of the video done.

Just as you were about to sit back down, you heard footsteps from the entrance hall-fast footsteps at that- and you looked up towards the double doors to the warehouse, which were both open. You saw an elongated shadow getting closer to the warehouse, and before long one certain elated British goof was sprinting in with an enormous grin on his face, along with a seemingly annoyed redhead in tow.

“(y/n)! Ready for the best lunch and swimmy bevs ever?” Gavin asks as he leans on your desk, slightly laying his chin on one of your monitors. You look up at him, smiling cheerful, but eyes tired and stressed out.

“Well, I’ve never been to a lunch and swimmy bevs before, so I would assume that this would be the best, right?” You ask, placing your elbows on the desk and putting your head into your hands to stare up at Gavin expectantly. He smiles even wider, using his left hand to touch your nose quickly, making a ‘boop’ sound and giggling uncontrollably. You laugh as well, smiling wider as you heard Michael’s disgruntled scoff.

“Will you idiots just come on already? The more time we spend fucking around here the less time we have to fuck around the pool and get smashed. So are you dumbasses coming or not?” Michael says with an annoying tinge in his voice, gesturing wildly with his hands towards the exit and an annoyed look on his face. You stand up quickly, shutting the lid to your laptop slowly after saving your work with the editing. You reach for your phone, and after shoving it into your back pocket, you walk over to Michael, stopping in front of him and staring into his brown eyes.

“The fuck are you doing-”

“Boop!” You yell out as you ‘boop’ Michael’s nose lovingly. You hear Gavin giggle loudly and squeakily behind you, but you didn’t pull your eyes away from Michael’s, you stifling a laugh as he continued to stare at you, cheeks beginning to turn redder and redder as time went on. You assumed rage, because what else could it be, and you laughed loudly as Gavin grabbed your hand and yanked you towards the door.

“Swimmies here we come!” Gavin yells out as he drags you towards the outdoors. After a few seconds of being pulled everywhere, you shake your hand free from Gavin’s, which doesn’t alter his walking speed at all. You fall back from him as you slow your walking pace, and you watch from behind as Gavin leads the charge towards yours and Michael’s apartment. After slowing your pace, you eventually fell into step next to a still annoyed Michael.

“Hi Michael.”

He turns his head slightly to look at you, then goes back to looking forward.

“Hi (y/n).”

You frown exaggeratedly, never removing your eyes from Michael’s face.

“Are you mad at me, Michael?”

“Why, does it seem like I am?” He grumbles out, giving you a sideways glance as you nod in affirmation. “Well I’m- Jesus, (y/n)!” He suddenly yelps, darting an arm across your torso as you reach the curb of the road in front of the office. “I would think that after that car incident you would have learned to be more careful at anything involving roads or cars.”

You shrug, looking both ways quickly before beginning to walk in step with Michael once more. Once the pair of you reached the shortcut behind your apartment, you went to reach for the broken piece of the chain link fence, but pulled your hand back in surprise as Michael held it instead. After walking carefully through the opening, with Michael in tow, the two of you walk in silence towards your apartment. After climbing the long flight of stairs, you finally caught up with Gavin, who was sitting on the floor leaning up against the door. He looked up and the two of you and smiled, using his hands to bring himself back to a standing position.

“Did you guys get lost or something? Took you awhile.” Gavin says, a suggestive grin appearing on his face. He waggles his eyebrows slightly, and you just shrug it off.

“Nah, Michael just walks really slow.” You answer as Michael slips past you and began to unlock the door. Once it was open, Gavin darted inside, looking around in complete shock and awe.

“Wow, this is pleasantly clean considering Michael lives here. Especially living here with you, (y/n).”

“Are you implying something, Gavin?”

“Well, I mean,” Gavin pauses, a shit eating grin appearing on his face, “I’m not saying you’re messy or anything. Michael, I’m just saying that I assumed that the two of you don’t seem like the type of people to have careful sweet sex, is all.”

“Hey!”

“W-what?! What the fuck are you talking about, Gav?” Michael sputters quickly, cheeks going even redder than before. His eyes were wide in surprise while yours were simply slightly squinted, a tint of redness in your cheeks from embarrassment. You placed a hand over your mouth, in a pitiful attempt to stifle a laugh, but it failed as you sputtered out a broken laugh. Both men looked away from each other for a moment to glare in your direction, a scowl on Michael’s face and the same shit-eating grin on Gavin’s. You laughed some more, waving your hand dismissively in the direction of the men as you walk off towards your bedroom to get dressed in your swimsuit, leaving them to talk together. You shut your door, but remained close enough to be in hearing range. Though, you knew that you could only hear if Michael yelled.

“Stop with that stupid smirk, before I punch it off of you.” Michael grumbles, wiping his eyes with his hands.

“Were you hiding something, my little Michael?”

“No! No, Gav, I wasn’t! We aren’t that close!”

“Michael, I just thought-”

“Thought what Gavin? Not everyone fucks their roommates, Gav. Hell, why did you say that?”

You could faintly hear Gavin mumbling, but gave up on listening any further as you walked off into the bathroom. As you got ready, the men continued to argue in the next room, as they decided to move into Michael’s bedroom as they both got ready- Gavin in the bathroom and Michael in the bedroom.

“I was just trying to be funny, Michael. Hell, I’m sorry but I have no idea why you’re getting so worked up over that one little-”

“Its not a little thing, don’t you get it?!” Michael sighs, running a hand through his hair roughly, tugging at his auburn curls.

“Then at least tell me why.”

“We barely talk as it is. It was only recently that we could finally bear being in the same room together and acknowledge each others existence! I know I was mean to her when she first started coming around, but I don’t want her to hate me forever, Gavin. Fuck, we actually got close the other night. For once, it seemed like we both let our guard down around each other and it felt fantastic!”

“If you want to tell her something you should just tell her that you-”

“Are you guys coming or not?!” You yell from the living room, still unable to hear them talking, but knowing that they were in Michael’s room. You pulled the orange beverage dispenser from the cupboard above the sink and began filling it with ice when you heard the door swing open. As both men walked out of the room, they both seemed exponentially more calm, even though Michael’s face still had a tinge of red in it. Michael walked towards you slowly, and once he was behind you, he took the container of ice straight from your hands, walking over to the fridge to begin filling it.

“Everything okay there, Gavin?” You ask quietly, leaning over the counter to be only inches away from his face. His eyebrows perked up in response and then he nodded quickly.

“Yeah, why?”

You shrug. “I dunno, I heard yelling coming from out here earlier.”

“Oh, yeah, nothing’s wrong. Just a couple of lads in a disagreement is all. By the way, sorry about my comment earlier. Though, Michael seemed more bothered by it than you were.”

“Hah, yeah, I found it more funny than embarrassing. It’s funny because he would never think of banging me anyway, and because I was actually talking to Ray about it a little while ago. Michael doesn’t like comments like that though, clearly. I think he hates me. Not really sure.”

“Wait, you and Ray were-”

“Hey assholes, stop making out in the kitchen and gossiping like teenagers. We cook in here, I don’t need the memory of you in here, Gav.”

“Will people stop interrupting my bloody sentences?! It’s happened twice already. Twice!”

“Stop bitching, and let’s go.”

The three of you walked downstairs towards the pool, you being completely silent and listening to Gavin and Michael argue about something Gavin had talked to Ryan about the previous day. You had mostly tuned it out, but you remembered hearing something about coins and if one flip affects the other or something stupid like that. Even from behind the two men, you could see that Michael was beyond done with Gavin’s shit today. Though, Gavin didn’t seem to have any plans on letting that get him down, as he was basically just ignoring Michael’s comments and just kept spewing off his own opinions in a cheerful manner.

Once you had all arrived at the pool and had chosen your preferred spot, which luckily wasn’t that hard to find because there wasn’t anyone else at the pool, Michael had already began to pour the drinks to numb the pain that was Gavin Free. Gavin had already jumped in, but hadn’t looked to see how deep the water was and had just ended up smashing his ass up against the bottom of the pool.

“Bugger my ass!” He screamed as he surfaced from the not so deep water, shaking his hair away from his face by shaking like a dog.

“Literally!” You yell from your spot in a lounge chair, earning yourself two groans in response. You considered that a win.

“Hey, Michael?” You ask, earning a small quip of a ‘hmm?’ in response.

“Can I get some of the stuff?”

“What stuff?” He asks from his lounge chair, and you wave your hand in the direction of the container. “Oh, the riot punch? Yeah, sure. Gavin was a dumbass and decided to get in the water before getting any, so go to town.”

You nod once before sitting up from the position you were sat in previously. You squeak out in protest as a small pain shoots down your back, which causes Michael to look over at you.

“You good? That sounded...concerning.”

“Yeah, yeah, fine. I was just sitting in that chair in the office for so long I guess it doesn’t approve of anything else.”

“I can get you a glass if you want. I’m literally right next to it anyway.”

Before you even had the chance to turn down his offer he was up out of his chair, pouring yet another glass of the punch. You took the glass that he handed you graciously, taking a small sip to let the flavor roam around your tongue. You could definitely taste the vanilla and the Sunny D, but you could also still taste the alcohol. It wasn’t too potent, but you could still taste it. You took another swig from the glass, swallowing quickly to avoid the burn in your throat. Within around another half of a minute, your glass was completely empty, and you slammed it down onto the end table between yours and Michael’s chairs.

“You want another, or are you gonna wait a bit?” Michael asks, tearing his eyes away from Gavin leaning on the edge of the pool with his eyes closed to glance at you.

“In a bit. I think I’m actually going to get in the pool now, rather than fall in, so I can get another once I’m in the pool.” You say, standing up from the chair to begin pulling off your cover up and flip flops.

“What, so you think that I’ll just get up and hand you a glass? Because maybe I w-” he swallowed hard, shaking his head as he stood up to face the other direction opposite of you. “wont.”

“As if you’d say no, but point taken. I can just get Gavin to get me some or something.” You say, shrugging your shoulders as you walked off towards the deeper end of the pool.

“I’ll do what?” Gavin asks as he hoists himself up onto the edge of the pool, preparing to get himself a glass of the drink.

“Get me another glass of the stuff.” You answer, gesturing towards the large orange container and, at the same time, Michael, who was stood holding his drink and his mouth gaping open.

“Oh, sure.” Gavin says, grabbing your glass off of the table. Once you had reached a decent enough depth to the pool, you held your nose as you jumped in, only to pop up at a lightning speed because of the temperature of the water.

“Fuck, why is it cold?!”  You gasp, using your hand to wipe the hair from your eyes. You heard Michael laugh and Gavin snort.

“Are you really complaining about being cooler? It’s fucking hot out.” Michael says, pointing a finger towards the sun.

“I don’t mind being cooler, but it’s too cold. I don’t understand.” You squeak out as you wade back over towards the edge of the pool where Gavin was sitting. Once there, there was already a drink in your hand, which you gladly accepted. You took a large gulp after touching your plastic glass with Gav’s, draining nearly more than half of the contents in a few seconds.

“Holy shit, (y/n), you’re gonna be feeling that real quick.” Michael says as he got up to refill his glass. You shrug once again, not really minding the already light-headed feeling you were getting from the previous drink. You watched as Michael set his glass down on the edge of the pool before ripping his shirt off over his head, tossing it off to the side. He ran off in the same direction as you and Gavin, yelling out something before jumping over the pair of your heads and landing with an unpleasantly large splash next to you. Once he surfaced, you used a cupped hand to swipe water into his face, earning yourself a glare.

“What the fuck?”

“You got water in my face, so, why not.” You giggle out as Gavin did the same, earning a dunk into the water from Michael instead of just a glare. As both Michael and Gavin resurfaced from beneath the water, Gavin coughed and Michael bellowed out a hearty laugh, before both of them touched their plastic glasses together too and took large swigs from their glasses.

After only a mere ten minutes, the entire orange dispenser was empty, and the three of you were attempting to stay standing in the water. When you looked over at Michael and Gavin, you saw Michael smirking and Gavin smiling at Michael widely.

“‘Ey Michael?” Gavin slurred, poking Michael in the chest with a weary finger as he did so.

“What?”

“D’you wanna fight me? ‘Cus it seems like you wanna fight me.”

“I d-dun wanna fight you.”

“‘Ey (y/n), d’you wanna fight me?”

You look over at him and smile as best as you could manage, and you trudge through the water in Gavins direction. Once over there, you nod once and shove him into the water, laughing as you watch him flail beneath the surface. You hear Michael join in behind you, as he slurs something about Gavin being a ‘fucking idiot’ while pointing. After Gavin had finally surfaced, he glared at you with squinted eyes, which just caused you to laugh louder. After another ten minutes of wading and joking in the water, a thought pops into your head which causes you to smirk devilishly. Making your way to the stairs, you use the railing to support yourself as you trek upwards on the stairs. You walk carefully and unsteadily along the perimeter of the pool, stopping once you’re standing next to Michael.

“What’re you doing, (y/n)?”

“What do you bet, what do you bet that I can dive over your head?” You ask, smirking at Michael as he shakes his head in denial.

“I don’t think you even know how to dive.”

“I’ll...I’ll show you.” You say confidently, taking a few steps backwards before beginning to run towards Michael, only to trip over the lip of the edge of the pool and to splash roughly into the water. You had mentally prepared yourself for impact with the ground as you fell, but somehow you hadn’t collided with the hard concrete bottom of the pool. You gasped as you suddenly resurfaced, feeling as though you were sitting down. You glanced around, looking left at Gavin on the other side of the pool, then looking right, straight into Michael’s eyes.

“You’re lucky I’m coherent enough to be able to catch you.” He mumbled to you, answering your inner confusion that he could see in your eyes.

“I guess I really am.” You say softly, seriousness in your voice. You could feel that he was carrying you bridal style, with one arm behind your lower back and one in the crook of your knees. You never pulled you eyes away from his, letting your fuzzy vision focus on his brown eyes. You smile softly as you reach a hand up to stroke his curls once, to which he just smiles and does the same to you, his fingers threading through your hair from roots to tips. You heard Gavin get out, mumbling something about a towel as he collapsed onto a lounge chair to sun himself, but you never broke contact with Michael.

“You can put me down if you want…”

“I’m fine just doing this.”

You close your eyes and allow your head to rest against his shoulder, enjoying the warmth that you could feel radiating from his skin.

“Hey, (y/n)..?” Michael asks quietly and hesitantly, craning his neck to a comfortable position in order to rest his chin atop of your head.

“‘Mm?”

“Do,” He pauses, swallowing semi-roughly before continuing, “do you hate me?”

Without moving your head for fear of disrupting Michael, you quietly answer, barely opening your mouth.

“No, of course not. Why should I?”

“Because,” he sighs, “I’ve given you so many reasons to. Look at it this way, when you first started coming around I never talked to you. I ignored you like you weren’t even there. Now, I barged into your life by moving into your apartment. There’s been so many reasons for you to hate me, and if you don’t, you’re clearly batshit insane.”

“It doesn’t matter Michael.”

“Yeah, I thought you'd hate me- wait, what?”

You shrug. “I don’t really care. I’m sure you had your reasons for ignoring me in the beginning, but you don’t ignore me now.”

“They were stupid reasons…”

“It’s still a reason.” You say, snuggling a little bit closer to him. You smile and laugh breathily as you feel his arms flex to pull you closer.

“Listen...about the other night. With the movie and all that…”

“What about it?”

“Were you okay? I mean, were you okay with what went on and everything? If I crossed any boundaries, you can tell me.”

Shrugging again, you reply quietly.

“I didn’t hate it, that’s for sure. I just thought it was strange at first because that was the first time you didn’t avoid me like the plague.”

Michael sighs hard and shakes his head in disappointment.

“God, I’m such an asshole. That’s not how I meant for this whole situation of ours to go, I’m dead serious. Nothing is going as I’ve thought and its just so god damn frustrating!”

“Hey, Michael?”

“I can’t believe myself, I’m just-ugh.”

“Michael?”

“I’m so fucking sorry, I just-”

“Michael!”

“What?”

“I don’t mean to ruin the moment, but can we get out now? I’m getting sleepy and my fingers are all pruny and gross. How much longer do we have ‘till we have to be back?”

“We don’t have any recordings scheduled, so no specific time really. Do you need to finish editing the Wednesday let’s play?” He asks as he begins walking towards the stairs.

“Yeah, I do.”

“Well, then maybe we have like, another hour. We probably don’t need to be back until about 2:30. It’s only like 1:45ish so we’re alright on time.”

You nod, wiggling out of Michael’s arms as he sets you down on the top step. You walk slowly over towards the lounge, trying your best to keep your balance. You grab the towel and begin to dry off, pausing briefly to hit a sleeping and snoring Gavin not so gently.

“Did you want to go back to the office Gav, or what? We’re gonna go back to the apartment and rest for a little while, you’re welcome to come with. We could play some games and eat whatever me and (y/n) have in the fridge.”

“Hnng? Oh, sure. Sounds top.” Gavin responds as he brings himself up to his feet, stretching and yawning loudly, only to flop back down onto the lounge chair moments later. He closed his eyes again, using his hand to block out the sun from burning his eyes.

“Well let’s go then.” Michael says, grabbing the orange container by the handle and began walking towards the gate, you grabbing the towel and following him. Once you had caught up, he was holding the gate open for you, smiling as you approached him. You looked behind you, seeing Gavin still laying on the lounge chair looking as if he had no plans of moving anytime soon.

“He still hasn’t moved, lazy asshole.” You say, scoffing as you loosely gesture in his direction with one hand. Michael snorts, staring over at the now once again sleeping man before rolling his eyes and opening the gate further for you.

“Are we just leaving him here?” You ask, walking through the gate and spinning around to face him.

“It’ll be funny. Plus, he knows where the apartment is so whenever he decides to wake his lazy ass up, he’ll come back. Another plus is that we’ll get lunch to ourselves and just get to spend time.”

You smile, looking into his eyes. “I’ll have to get used to you saying that.”

He shakes his head.  “Yeah, I guess you will. Because I’ll tell you one thing now.”

“What’s that?”

“You definitely aren’t getting rid of me anytime soon.”

You smile, watching his lips as they turn up into a warm smile as well. There was silence among the pair of you for a moment, but you cleared your throat and spoke up, trying to cover the giggles that wanted to escape your lips.

“I know a way that’ll definitely get rid of you.”

“What-”

“Race you back to the apartment!” You yell, sprinting off in the direction of the apartment quickly, leaving him in the dust. You heard him mutter something under his breath behind you, but then heard the sound of his flip flops colliding with the asphalt seconds later. As you reached the stairs, you heard him gaining on you, but you chose to ignore it by focusing more intently on getting yourself up the stairs. He faltered once, dropping the container on the ground, but then quickly regained his footing and solid second place position. You slammed a hand on the door, jimmying the key inside the lock in an attempt to get the door open. You could hear him gaining on you, but you squealed in both triumph and fear when the door fell open under your weight and had you stumbling into the home, as well as first place. Raising your arms up, you spun around, squeaking triumphantly. You spun around a full 180 degrees to look out the door, to which you were immediately met with a Michael tackling you over the arm of the couch and onto it’s puffy surface.

“You little shit.” He says through his teeth as he smiles. You stare up at him, into those brown eyes you could get lost in. He stares back, his smile never escaping his lips. The back of your mind was screaming at you, telling you to do something, but you knew that you shouldn’t. You watched as his eyes roamed the map of your facial features, eventually ending and looking back into your eyes.

“I won.” You say, the words coming out a lot quieter than you meant them to. He smiles, nodding before lapsing back into silence. Moments later, he had his arms on either side of your face, using them to push himself up off of you and back onto his feet. You let out a small whine of disapproval, the sudden weightlessness of your no longer compressed chest leaving a strange feeling of emptiness and longing.

“Sorry, just thought that we should probably, I don’t know, close the door before people get the wrong idea.”

“Yeah-”

“Or the right idea.”

You look at him with confusion, torn between what you thought he was implying and what you ever so desperately wanted him to be implying. You followed him with your eyes as he walked into the laundry room, pulling out some pants and a shirt, closing over the door but not latching it. You sit up, walking towards the laundry room to grab some new clothes as well, shocked when he handed them to you through the door.

“I’ll get changed out here, don’t come out till I say so.” You say, hearing him grunt an affirmative in response.

“Did you ever learn how to dance?” Michael pipes up after a few moments, leaving you perplexed.

“I can flail around, if that’s what you mean.”

He laughs once. “Well, that works, but how about slow dance?”

“Why?”

“I just don’t know that much about you. Which is sad.”

“Well, no, I never learned how to dance. I think I slow danced at my parents wedding when my mom got remarried, but I was young. Plus my parents never taught me much of anything. Except for that it’s apparently okay to kick your kids out onto the streets because of their passions.”

“What?”

“Nothing. That’s a conversation for some other day.”

“Oh. Alright.”

“You can come out now.” You say, shoving the door open before walking back towards the couch. You jumped slightly when you felt a hand grasp yours and spun you around until you were facing Michael once again.

“Wait here.”

**You raised an eyebrow at him, watching as he set his iPhone on the sound bar that you had bought and clicked a button on the screen once. Your confusion became infinitely more as the song began playing and he walked over to the door, throwing the lock once so that the door couldn’t be opened.

“What’re you doing?” You ask quietly as he walks back over to you and stands directly in front of you, wrapping his arms around your waist. You keep your arms flesh against your sides, still very unsure of what was going on.

“Teaching you something.” He whispers, using his arms to pull your hands up around his neck. “Stand on my feet.”

“Michael, I-”

“Just trust me.”

You do as he said, placing each of your feet atop of his, causing the pair of you to stand with your chests together. He began to sway slowly to the song, which was a song that you would have never associated Michael with ever, and you followed, still slightly unsure of what was happening.

“This song taught me one thing.” He whispers, placing his chin lightly on the top of your head.

“What’s that?”

“That people who hurt you in the past, especially in a romantic relationship, never matter anymore once you find that certain someone who you click with immediately. They make everything infinitely better. Especially when contemplating infinity with that person themselves.”

_Of all the things I should've said,_

_That I never said._

_All the things we should've done,_

_That we never did._

_All the things I should've given,_

_But I didn't._

Not knowing how to respond, you simply nod, attempting to hide the smile that was spreading on your lips. After a few moments of swaying, you pull your head back, craning your neck upwards to look into his eyes, which had been closed up until this exact point.

“I think that’s advice I’ve been looking for all of my life. Sometimes I just would sit around, begging for someone to just make the hurt evaporate.”

_Oh, darling, make it go,_

_Make it go away._

“You never know,” He whispers, his eyes intently focused onto yours, “that one person could be around you so much, but never says anything for fear of fucking up a good thing.”

Silence.

“Well, that’s just stupid.” You say.

“If you say so.” He says quickly.

_Give me these moments back._

_Give them back to me._

He removes one hand from your hip, placing it underneath your chin, using the other hand to pull you closer.

_Give me that little kiss._

_Give me your hand._

You inhaled a breath quickly and sharply, feeling the sudden spark of change as you felt his lips on top of yours, an unexpected yet very welcome change. You had never understood the concept of when people talked about “that spark” or how two people can create fireworks, but you smiled into the kiss as you realised that that one thing existed, and that you could feel it with every time his lips moved to deepen the kiss, you never pulling away. The music became background noise as it played on, the two of you no longer thinking about it, more concerned with what was happening in the foreground. Eventually the song began to fade away as the two of you pulled back, you staring wide eyed with scarlet cheeks, and him looking uncertain.

_Oh, darling, make it go away._

_Just make it go away now._

“Well that was perfect timing if I do say so myself.” You say, laughing once as you saw his face fall with relief.

“It better have been, I’ve been planning that for awhile.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah, it’s been fucking hard to not ruin it by kissing you earlier than now. Because hell, you give so many chances.”

“It’s not my fault that you had other plans!” You choke out in fake disapproval, scowling at him before pulling him into a hug.

“So I take it that I didn’t fuck up a good thing?” He asks, craning his neck back to look down at you.

“Definitely not.” You say, smiling up at him. Your cheeks were starting to hurt from all the smiling you had been doing recently, especially in the last few hours. You were about to lean in again when your stomach growled loudly, undoubtedly ruining the moment.

“Well, shit, guess I’m hungry.”

“Oh yeah! We haven’t eaten yet.” Michael says, dropping his arms to walk over to the fridge, removing an armful of sandwich gubbins from the fridge and dumping them out onto the counter, including condiments. You walk over pulling out a piece of bread, and then a knife for the mayo. Though, you had other intentions with said condiment. You twirled the knife around inside the jar, mayo gathering on the chrome surface. You watched Michael out of the corner of your eye as he washed plates in the sink, waiting for the perfect chance.

Once you saw the chance, you launched over to him, wrapping one arm around his waist and wiping the condiment covered knife across his cheek. He squeaks in protest, turning around to glare at you, his eyes meeting your laughing figure holding a knife coated in mayo.

“‘M sorry Michael.” You attempt to squeak out between laughs.

“Oh bullshit you are.” He says as he reaches over and grabs a slice of cheese and slaps it onto your nose. You return the favor, grabbing a piece of lunch meat and throwing it to the prefect spot where it would stick to the mayo on his face.

“God this is fucking gross!” Michael yells as he peels the piece of ham off of his face and throws it at you as fast as he can. You deflect it with your hand, causing it to land on the ground with an odd squelching sound. You hear knocking at the door and you stop the fight for a moment to listen. Michael doesn’t though, because after a few seconds theres a piece of turkey coated in mustard stuck to your face. You glare at him as he falls over from laughter, and you hear the knock once more, along with a squeak of “Let me in, you bitches!”

You begin walking over to the door, while attempting to clear the mustard from your face before Michael yells “Wait!” behind you. You give him a questioning stare and he holds a finger up as he whips around to grab a piece of bread. Without any context, you knew exactly what he was doing, which caused you to giggle loudly. After he finished soaking the bread beneath the faucet, he walked into the living room.

“You open the door and get out of the way. I’ll chuck this and hopefully it’ll land somewhere near him. Got it?”

“It’s a plan.” You say as you walk over and lay a hand on the doorknob. You watch him, waiting for his signal of go. He counts up to three on his fingers, and you flung the door open, watching as he threw the bread at the perfect height and speed so that it nailed Gavin right in the face. You heard him gag a few times, but it was then blocked out by Michael’s excessive laughter, which was so contagious that you joined in as well, leaning on him for support. After a few moments of Gavin gagging on the floor of the building, he stood up and launched after Michael, attempting to wrap him in a headlock, but failed miserably, just ending up sprawled out on the floor underneath Michael.

“Michael, please!”

“Gavin you little shit.”

They stayed like that for a few moments, wrestling and rolling helplessly on the floor until Michael stood up.

“Okay,” he says, extending a hand out to a sprawled out Gavin, “now it’s actually lunch time.”

You laugh as you watch Michael attempt to help Gavin off of the floor, constantly failing miserably, as you make yourself an actual sandwich.

\----------------

“God,” You whimper as you toss your bag onto the floor and flop down onto the couch, “I am exhausted.”

“Yeah, tell me about it, I’ve been worn out since lunch.” Michael says as he flops down next to you, wrapping an arm around you to pull you closer.

“At least someone decided to order early dinner at the office. I don’t feel like cooking or eating out.” You say, leaning on his shoulder as he flipped through the TV guide again, once again finding nothing to watch.

“Why is there never anything on anymore?” He whines, still attempting to find something.

“Who cares? We’re both literally minutes away from passing out anyways, why not just go into our rooms and watch netflix?”

“That’s not the point though. The point,” he pauses, leaning down to kiss your cheek and to nuzzle into your neck, “is that I want to do something that involves cuddling.”

“Hmm…” You humm, thinking to yourself.

“What if we both go into the same room for once?” Michael asks, looking at your face for an answer in your expression. When it lights up, he smiles and scoops you up bridal style and carries you down the hall.

“Now the question is which room we go to.” He says, looking between both doors.

“Yours is fine.” You say, pointing towards his door. He walks towards it and kicks it open with his foot, then once on the other side does the same to close it. He sets you down slowly, making sure to not hurt you or anything as he turns on his monitor and his computer to launch Netflix. He grabs his wireless mouse and crawls up onto the bed with you, and you immediately nuzzle yourself into a comfortable position curled up into his chest. He selects something random and flips off the lamp, wrapping his arms around you with a content sigh.

Within minutes you were asleep, his arms leading you to the most comfortable sleep you’d had in years.

\----------------

“Hey, (y/n). Hey.”

“Hnng, what?” You grunt out groggily from being shaken awake.

“Work.” Michael says, ripping the covers away from his side of the bed as he sat up. You do the same, rubbing your eyes and yawning audibly before standing up. The both of you quickly dressed and ate, attempting to get out the door somewhat quickly. After you had finally managed to drag yourself out the door and dragged yourself towards the office, you found yourself inside the office, a large cup of coffee in your hand and Geoff standing next to you.

“Hey (y/n). Late night last night?”

You shake your head. “Nope. I just want more sleep than I got is all.”

“Are you doing any recordings with us today?” Geoff asks as he begins walking towards the Achievement Hunter office.

“Nope, not scheduled for anything except for behind the scenes for something Michael planned.” The two of you shuffled in the door, only to be met by an arguing Team Nice Dynamite.

“Gavin, what the fuck! You never had a problem doing this shit before, why now?!” Michael yells, gesturing wildly with his hands, Gavin standing in front of him looking quite nervous.

“Michael, I just don’t want to do another horror game. We did Slender awhile back, why do we need another one?”

“Because people requested it!”

“What the fuck is going on around here?” Geoff says, putting up a hand for silence while waiting for answers.

Michael took a deep breath. “People want us to do an Outlast lets play, and Gavin doesn’t want to.”

“I just-”

“Shut up, Gavin. If he doesn’t want to, why not do it with someone else? We have five other people around here that are available for the day. Just pick one.” Geoff says, tone strained.

“But there’s-”

“Look, don’t complain, just ask someone. Hell, ask (y/n), you guys have a similar relationship as you and Gavin do.”

“Woah woah woah, Geoff. I don’t do well with horror games.” You say, putting your hands up defensively.

“Neither does Gavin, believe me. Look, you’re the best choice for this. Can’t you just do it for a little while?”

“I’ve heard Joel and Adam screaming about it when they record it, I don’t know how-”

“Please?” Geoff asks, clearly hoping to end the conversation here and now. You sigh, breathing out a frustrated and defeated “fine” before sitting down next to Michael and grabbing the mouse. Michael smiles at you, wrapping his arm around your shoulders to pull you into a comforting side hug. You smile hesitantly as he hits record, syncing his footage up before beginning the game, your undoubted demise.

The first few minutes go alright, as nothing really happened when you were looking around different rooms looking for things. Anytime something small happened that made you jump slightly Michael would put his hand on your knee comfortingly, assuring you that everything would be okay. You could hear the other guys laughing behind you, but you chose to ignore them most of the time in favor of paying more attention to Michael than anything. There had been jump scares before, but you felt like the underground area was the worst. Nothing had happened so far, so everything was fine, right? Right.

Though, the first real big thing came out of nowhere.

“Alright, I saw a dude walk over here so let’s just be careful.” Michael says, using his keys to make the character walk forward.

“We could just not.” You say, flipping on the camera to peek into an area that was too dark to see anything into.

“Nah, we gotta keep going. Adventure is out there!” Michael says, and you feel his hand on your knee again. This time, you reach down to clutch his hand in yours, taking the initiative to interlock your fingers together. He squeezes them once before returning to the game, much to you dismay.

“I don’t like this.” You say as you walk up to a corner to peek around it.

“I don’t either, but we gotta find the gas pumps or whatever the fuck it said.”

“Something moved, something moved!”

“Calm down, (y/n). Go in that room.” He walks towards it and you squint your eyes the entire time, very unsure of what lied ahead.

“What is that?” You ask, pointing to a red light with your camera.

“That’s a pump I think.” He says, walking towards it. Once over there you click, jumping nearly out of your chair at the noise.

“Hide, hide HIDE!” You yelp, spinning the mouse around in an attempt to find a place to hide. Eventually you spot a bed, which you nearly don’t get under in time before there is a man patrolling the room. You tuck your head into Michael’s shoulder, attempting to shield your eyes from whatever was going on on the screen at the moment.

“Hey, (y/n), you know what a good conversation is when you’re hiding under a bed for dear life?”

“What?”

“A conversation about you officially being my girlfriend.”

You sit, stunned in both fear and shock, then you shake your head a few times.

“This shit is tense, Michael.”

“So?” He asks as you click out to crawl out from underneath the bed. You stand in the middle of the room for a moment, you spending the time to gather your breath before returning to the game.

“We need a plan.” You say, still looking at the same spot on the wall in the game.

“I’ve got a plan.”

“Not for that conversation you dope. The game. We’ll have that other conversation when we die.”

“How about we just run? We’re bound to find something eventually.”

“I don’t know…”

“Okay,” Michael says, walking towards the door, “Look left. We’ll go left.”

You turn the mouse in order to allow the two of you to see to the left. Though, once you saw the enemy, you screamed bloody murder and threw your hands up over your face, abandoning the mouse completely. Michael attempted to save your character, but failed as the enemy caught up to him and caused his death.

“Well shit.”

“Fuck this game, fuck this game.” You repeat constantly, shaking in fear.

“So, we’re dead.”

“Yeah.”

“So, how about you consider being my official girlfriend now?”

“Why would you ask now? I am literally scared shitless, asshole.” You say, but you smile as you do.

“Because then you can never resist.”

You roll your eyes, staring at him for a moment before nodding your head in affirmation.

“Fine, but I’m not playing this anymore.”

“Deal!” He exclaims, pulling your face near his to kiss you once more before terminating the recording. You sigh in relief as he exited the game and removed his headphones.

“That was hell and that’s not happening again.”

“Whatever you say.” Michael says, patting you on the back before going to render his footage.

\----------------

**2 Weeks Later**

“Why do I even need to have my eyes closed anyway, this is stupid.” You say as Michael grabs your hand and begins leading you somewhere that you were very uncertain about.

“Because it’s a fucking surprise, stupid.”

“Wow, rude.”

“Whatever” He says, stopping in front of you bringing you to a halt.

“Okay, I guess you can open them now.” He says, removing his hand from covering your eyes. You open them, only seeing a really tiny slip of paper on the table.

“Wow, boy am I glad I closed my eyes for this.”

“Oh shut up and open it, idiot.”

“You’re just bringing the vinegar today, aren’t you Michael?” You say as you reach down to get the folded slip off of the surface. You opened it slowly, half nervous and half excited for what could be written inside.

Will you move in with me?

“Michael, we already live together.”

“But we could sleep in the same bed for once.”

“We already do that.”

“Just shut up and say yes.”

“Fine, yes.” You say with a grin as he tackles you to the floor.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There may be an epilogue added to this at a later date.


End file.
